Anne and Edward Visit Turkey: Wow what a day!!

We had a great day of visiting Greek and Roman sites near here. We also had a great day, because we learned our friend Mary Prihoda is home from the hospital and on the mend.

First, we visited a 1000, yup that is one thousand year old olive tree. It was on the family property of our driver today. We also met some of his family harvesting olives. It is the harvest season here in Turkey.

A 1,000 year old olive tree

Our driver Ender and some of his family, which we disturbed while they were trying to harvest their olives.

Younger people with the old tree.

Next we drove to Didyma Temple. It was a massive Temple for the Oracle of Apollo. This was the most important oracle in the Greek world for Asia Minor and second only to the one in Delphi. So this was the real deal. The temple was never finished is was supposed to have 122 columns, but only about 74 got built and some of them were incomplete. These columns were gigantic, I paced off 8 to 9 feet in diameter.

Post earthquake view, we don't have a pre-earthquake view, as cameras had not been invented.

The columns are enormous. This was a very important site for the Greeks, as all of this effort would not have been put into a "normal" temple.

Medusa, keeping the temple safe from evil spirits.

It's all Greek to me.

Naturally, being Turkey, the Oracle is a cat, for a minor sacrifice of tuna, she will divine your your future.

To learn more about this site, see the URL below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didyma

The next two sites we visited showed the hazards of buying waterfront property. Unlike Galveston, they did not lose shoreline , but gained it. Both sites were built at the shore of inlets of the Aegean, but had rivers change course, the harbor silted in and now are somewhat distant from the water. However the land is very fertile farmland between them and the water.

Miletos or Miletus, I have seen it spelled both ways was an important city, originally founded in 1400 BCE. It went through its Greek and Roman periods and was destroyed once by the Persians. The remains today are of the Roman theater. Angelika pointed out that Greek theaters placed into the hillside with the stage in the "valley" so to speak. It blended with the environment more. The Romans built their theaters on a prominent point and built then up so that they could be seen for miles. More expensive and they projected powder. This building held about 15,000 and was very well designed to have it empty after a performance in 20 to 30 minutes. Tailgating had not been invented yet.

The plan

One of the well healed patrons enjoying a day at the theater.

Hey lady, these are our seats!

From the Bottom

From inside the arena area.

From the top

We also made it in time for turtle mating season. To see the video, go to our adult site $19.95 membership fee.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/miletus

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Aegean/Ephesus/prien_milet_didim/miletus.html

Priene

Another of the old shoreline cites that lost their port when the river moved. This place was awesome, it is very still, very high in the hills. We took a picnic lunch up the hill and ate in the Greek theater. It was just too cool. Anne thought this was the best site ever. The only problem I have with Turkey it seems everything is uphill.

Everything is uphill here!

Our destination, the theater.

Here we are!!

The lunch bunch- a great place to have a picnic lunch

A literal ringside seat

A lovely patron of the theater arts

Who said bring in the clowns????

Come down to Mustafa Eddie's used column pick a part yard. Let me put you in a late model (3rd or 4th ) BCE model

Here is nice little model, used only by an elderly Goddess to go to and from the forum.
A funny thng happened to her onthe way to the forum, but that's another story.