Photographer in Colorado

Leaving Konya, we headed on our journey towards Cappadocia. Our first stop was the Caravanserai at Aksaray. Caravanserai were built along the Silk Road through Turkey, spaced at intervals of about 30 miles apart. The Silk Road continued through the Middle East, eventually ending in China. The modern day equivalent of a caravanserai would be an Inn or Motel. This caravanserai was built in 1229, about the era of the Seljuk empire in Turkey. The main entrance portal to the caravanserai is shown below.

The arch above the portal has some exquisite detail. The image below was taken from below the arch, looking straight up.

On the walls, at either side of the entrance are fine detailed patterns carved into the stonework. An example of this detail is captured below.

Inside the caravanserai walls, is a large courtyard, with a small tower.

At the end of the caravanserai (the western side), are these huge halls. These were used to store goods of the traveling caravans and served as quarters for their pack animals (camels and horses). Here is an image with Angela looking up, in awe, at the high ceilings of these halls.

The caravanserai has some real architectural gems. I found these red flowers adjacent to one of the interior doorways. Once again, we see the detailed stonework carved into the arch above the doorway.

Here is another more detailed image of the stonework.

After visiting, we stopped at a nearby store before boarding the bus for our next destination — the Underground City of Derinkuyu in Cappadocia.

Excavation of this city started about 800 BCE, as a shelter and safe haven for thousands of people from marauding armies. The tunnels of the city are carved in a soft volcanic rock. A elaborate system of tunnels extending at least seven (7) levels underground were made. Rooms were carved off the tunnels to serve as living quarters, storage areas, livestock, etc. The city also has several ventilation shafts to ensure adequate flow of air.

Many of the tunnels are quite narrow, allowing only a single person to travel through, as shown below.

The tunnels also have doors to protect against unwanted incursion into the city. These are rolling rocks that can only be closed by rolling across the tunnel from the inside. These doors can only be operated from the “inside” of the tunnel. Here is an example of one of these doors.

We headed to the city of Göreme, located among the Fairy Chimneys that Cappadocia is well-known for. We stopped at one location with a view down towards the chimneys.

The Fairy Chimneys are soft volcanic rock formations. This is a similar rock formation to that of the underground city. In years gone by, several houses have been carved out of the rock, as can be seen in this image.

In this image, I made capture one of the local women sitting near a grapevine — I believe she lives close by — gazing up at another group of tourists to the area.

More later.

 

After leaving Aspendos, we headed inland to Konya. This city is well known for the Islamic poet Rumi. He lived and practiced in Konya. His tomb (or mausoleum) is located in the Mevlana Mosque in Konya. This mosque also includes the Mevlana Museum that have several exhibits relating to Rumi and Sufism.

This mosque is another that has really interesting ceilings. Above this chandelier is this exquisitely detailed ceiling.

Leaving the mosque, one passes by these heavy wooden doors.

Turning around after leaving the mosque, I looked up to admire the stonework above the door. I converted this image to monochrome because it renders detail much better that the color version.

In the center of the mosque courtyard is the ablution fountain. I made this image by focusing on the fountain. This shows the flowing water but allows the fencing to blur out of focus.

I made my way around and out of the courtyard. There a graves from several of the Imams who served in the mosque. These tombs have elaborate headstones. As the sun was setting, the headstone caps cast shadows on other nearby headstones.

I headed back into the courtyard where I made some more images, including this one showing several people moving between various the museum rooms.

Those headstones intrigued me, so I headed back to see the changing light of the setting sun. The angle of the sun had changed, creating shadows from different headstone caps.

Then I went to the wall at the back, where the three headstones projected three shadows on the wall.

We made our way to the gardens at the entrance to the mosque and museum complex. Here I captured the light from the setting sun.

We headed to the hotel by bus. After checking in, night had arrived and it was dinner time. Our restaurant was near to the mosque and museum. I took this opportunity to make an image of the mosque lit up against the night sky.

On the next morning, I headed out of the hotel at dawn. Sunlight was streaming down the street casting long shadows. I waited at this spot until some guys walking to work entered the frame to create this image.

Further down the street was a conical fountain in one of the parks. Here the backlit water drops were spraying down the fountain in this image.

There was a huge paved courtyard nearby, where huge flocks of pigeons had congregated. I found this gentleman feeding some of the pigeons.

On the roof of a nearby mosque, a flock of pigeons had roosted on the uneven brickwork.

Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast.

Continuing with our tour… Waking up early in our hotel in Antalya, I headed out to explore Old Town soon after sunrise. The night before was busy, with people meeting in restaurants and pubs. Sunrise was quiet and streets were empty. I waited in a street close to the hotel and waited for someone to appear. After a few minutes, an early morning street walker appeared.

The image above give an indication of narrow width of the street… just over one car wide! Although we had a small bus, it is obvious why we would not be able to navigate the Old Town streets in the bus.

As the sun rose, it lit up a line of water tanks mounted on the roof of a nearby building.

In one of the nearby streets, I found these blue doors closing off parking area behind someone’s house.

Traveling through Turkey, one finds many groups of men having conversations and sipping tea around a table. This looks like one location, where the colorful chairs and chest were packed away for the night.

Here, one early morning shopper stop to buy some fruit at a street vendor. Shopping for breakfast?

Many people in Turkey drink bottled water. Tap water is not always fit for drinking! Some enterprising person collected and bagged blue bottle caps from water bottles. I found this bag hanging from one of the street walls.

Across the street from out hotel was this restaurant. There are several quotations decorating the exterior walls. In this image is the following.

“Don’t bother me; that’s all I ask of you”.

This is a quotation by the Greek philosopher Diogenes (aka Dijayen), that I found interesting. Find out more information on Wikipedia.

I found one store close to the hotel, where I found beads and bowls.

Old Town has many Ottoman houses. This is one of the more interesting doors that I found.

Soon after, I headed back to the hotel for breakfast. After packing up, we left Old Town by way of Hadrian’s Gate. Hadrian was a very popular Roman emperor. Many of the ancient sites that we visited had statues of him and gates named after Hadrian.

This arch shows a detailed ceiling stonework, that is typical of many Roman buildings.

Arriving at the parking lot, our luggage arrived at the bus by taxi. After loading up, we headed towards Konya by way of Aspendos. The theater in Aspendos is a magnificent structure. This is extremely good condition, probably because it was occupied and cared for by Ottomans. Around the top perimeter of the theater is a gallery with many arches that look out across the seats and the stage.

We climbed up the theater steps to reach the gallery. Inside the gallery are a ring of arches, that stretch out along the perimeter. This is captured in the following image.

From one of the arches, I captured the view over the seating, the stage and the distant mountains.

The image below shows more detail of the wall above the stage.

Several people had been visiting the theater during the morning. However, I this image I was lucky to catch a single lone audience member once crowds had moved through.

The city of Aspendos was supplied with water by means of an aqueduct. Climbing the hill above the theater gives a great view of the surrounding countryside and ruins of the aqueduct.

After leaving Aspendos, we stopped for lunch at a roadside restaurant. Gozleme (pancakes) was the main specialty of this restaurant — yummy!

We had a two-night break in Kaş before continuing to Antalya. Getting up early, I left the hotel to make some images after sunrise, including this image of the Greek island of Meis.

This was the Linda Hotel where we stayed. Our room was on the second floor right at the back.

I headed down towards the harbor. This was the best image that I made of the lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor.

We left Kaş, stopping at the ancient ruins of Phaselis. This city was founded by colonists from Rhodes. Later it was part of the Lycian Federation. The following image is the main street that runs between two bays the border the city. On the right hand side of the street, are pedestals from monuments to various residents of the city.

This is the pedestal of the monument of Aurelius Ptolemaios, a wrester.

As with many cities, this one also has a theater. The city was built below Mount Olympos (Mt. Olympus), which is captured from the theater in this image.

Water was supplied from a nearby spring to the city by means of an aqueduct. Only a short section of the aqueduct remains, captured in this image.

Here we can see an archaeologist at work, making sketches of one of the ruined buildings. He had laid out a survey tape around the building on the right-hand side that was the subject of his sketches.

After leaving Phaselis, we boarded the bus, heading for Antalya. After lunch, I made this image of the beach stretching out towards the distant mountains, where a storm was brewing.

Antalya is a favorite tourist destination on the Mediterranean Coast. However, this year, tourism Turkey and many other European destinations were depressed. As a result, there were several empty buildings in Antalya.

After lunch, we headed to the Antalya Museum, where several archaeological pieces from ruins in the Antalya region are displayed. The following image shows the “Heracles Sarcophagus” (Hercules Sarcophagus) that was recovered after being smuggled from the site of Perge. The sides of the sarcophagus depict the 12 Labors of Heracles.

The following image is a statue of Heracles in a classic pose.

Following the museum visit, we headed for the Mia Hotel in Old Town Antalya. Old Town has narrow streets, so our bus could not enter. All bags were transferred to a taxi cab for delivery, while we walked the narrow streets to the hotel.

This hotel is located in an Ottoman style building, that is evident from the shutters covering the windows in the above image.

Continuing with our tour, we left Fethiye heading towards the city of Kaş. En route, we stopped at the ruins of the city of Xanthos. This was the capital of the Lycia during ancient times. As with many of the cities in Turkey, this one fell under Roman influence.

In the image below, we see a sarcophagus. These were used as burial chambers by the more wealthy residents of the city.

Archaeologists have been working on this site for many years. This exquisite mosaic tiled floor was uncovered by archaeological digs in one of the houses.

Here is the usual Roman Theater that we encountered in many of the ancient sites.

We made our way to Kaş, where we had lunch and then checked into the hotel. We were to stay here for 2 nights. During the afternoon, we swam in the hotel pool. Before dinner, we headed to the Antiphellos Theater, where we watched the sunset.

The following day was a boat trip among the Mediterranean islands. We headed out of Kaş, stopping above the city. This was the view over the city, towards the Greek island of Meis. This is one of many Greek islands off the coast of Turkey.

We arrived at Kekova, a few miles east of Kaş, where we boarded a family owned boat “Gizemha”. We spent much of the day stopping at several bays along the coast, swimming at each location in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. In this image, “Semet” was busy doing some crochet.

This is the fish that she crocheted.

There were several other boats cruising along the coast. Some of the other boats had many more visitors. As soon as the boat moored, they all streamed into the water like lemmings!

Along the coast we passed by a sunken city. One of the many earthquakes that occurred in Turkey, caused the island where this city was located to sink, submerging the city. This image captures one of the ruins in this city. This is one location where swimming and scuba diving is prohibited because archaeologists have still to investigate this site.

Heading back towards Kekova, we stopped a this small village of Kaleköy, where we visited a local craft market.

There was a turtle swimming tin the sea that I captured in the image below.

As we made our way to the craft market, I found this display of “Evil Eyes”. These eyes are supposed to ward off evil and may be found throughout Turkey.

Arriving back at Kekova, I made this image of our boat’s captain.

And his wife, Semet, as we departed.

Our tour group enjoyed this day, taking a break from visiting ancient ruins.

 

It was September 1, when our tour group left Pamukkale for Fethiye. Close to Fethiye, we stopped at a Carpet Co-operative store. This co-operative functions as an outlet for selling carpets from many local weavers. They also employee weavers who work on-site to make carpets and kilims. Here we were shown how carpets are made and saw carpet weavers in action. We were also shown how to identify real carpets from fakes and from machine made carpets. In the following image, this lady was spinning wool in the traditional manner, by hand.

The following image shows traditional tools and a spinning wheel used for spinning wool.

Turkish carpets are distinguished by having a double knot in the weave. This image shows a weaver making a carpet by hand.

Silk carpets are also crafted on the premises. We were given a demonstration of spinning silk threads from silk filaments that were unwound from cocoons. In this image, I captured a lady weaving a silk carpet. Silk is much thinner than wool. As a result a silk carpet may take 5 or 6 times longer to weave that a wool carpet.

The demonstrations were followed by a sales pitch, in traditional Turkish manner. We were offered a variety of teas and other beverages while sales staff showed different carpet designs, both wool and silk. Several members of our tour group, purchased carpets that include shipping to their homes.

Leaving, the co-operative, we stopped at the abandoned Greek village of Kayaköy. This village originally had a few thousand Greek villagers. During the Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.

The following two images show some of the abandoned buildings in the village.

More information about the village of Kayaköy and the Population Exchange can be found on Wikipedia.

We left for our hotel in Fethiye. Our tour group went out to dinner in downtown Fethiye. Walking to the fish market, we passed this umbrella alley.

We had dinner at the fish market. Here, we chose the fish from one of the vendors. The fish is cooked at one of the kitchens and served at tables in the courtyard. There were a variety of fish that were offered, as shown below.

These two guys were taking our order for the kitchen.

In the following image, Yessir, one of our tour group members, was busy choosing fish for his dinner.

Angela and I both chose snapper for our dinner. These were delicious.

 

After a short break, back to our tour of Turkey. After leaving the hotel, we made our way to the ancient city of Ephesus that is located just outside the town of Selçuk. We entered the city through the Upper Gate. Across the road, I was amused by a vendor selling “Genuine Fake Watches” that is captured in the following image.

The main street through Ephesus is the Curetes Way, that is tiled with marble slabs. As with many of the ancient cities in Turkey, this city was ruined by earthquakes in the 6th century. Many of the buildings have been reconstructed from the fallen remains of the buildings. The city was established by various civilizations in the past, including the Amazons and Greeks. However, most of the buildings are from Roman times.

When first established, Ephesus was close to the shore of the Aegian Sea. However, over time, the sea silted up from a variety of sources. Present day Ephesus is now 5 kms (3 miles) inland from the sea. In the following image, we look down towards the “Library of Celsus”. In the background, the shoreline was located behind, where the thin light-colored strip of ground is located.

On the right side of the street is the “Temple of Hadrian” with exquisite detail in the arches and columns.

In the image below, is the figure of Medusa, at the back of the structure.

On the left side of the street are remains of terraced houses, where some of the wealthy inhabitants lived. Outside the houses is the detailed mosaic paving that can be seen in the following image.

One of the features of the city are the latrines, where residents had reserved seats to perform their “job”. The latrines were also a place of business. The left hand was used for cleaning up, the right hand was for a handshake to seal the deal. Make sure that one doesn’t get left and right hands confused!

The Library of Celsus was constructed in the 2nd century. It was third in size after the libraries in Alexandria and Pergamon.

The image below shows some of the detail from the columns and facades of the library.

The library was reputed to contain over 10,000 scrolls that were carefully stored away from the affects of heat and climate. As with many Roman buildings, the ceilings and moulding have exquisite details that can be seen in the image below.

The Great Theater had could accommodate 25,000 people.

Across from the theater is the Harbor Street, that led down to the sea. On the left side is the site of the Lower Agora (market). This location was close to the harbor so that traders could bring their wares quickly to market.

After visiting the theater, we made our way to the exit along this avenue of trees.

Near the exit, I found the inevitable collection of cats! Here are a bunch of sleeping kittens, sleeping like only kittens can.

We stopped for a traditional pancake lunch of Gözleme close the ruins. These pancakes are very thin, like crepes, and filled with mince and vegetables. In this image, are two ladies preparing aubergines (egg plants) for the pancake filling.

This lady is preparing the pancake pastry. Pancakes are cooked on a large heated metal dish. No images here. Gözleme are delicious. Yum!

Following lunch, we boarded our tour bus and headed east to Pamukkale. Above the modern city of Pamukkale, are travertine terraces that are formed when mineral deposits from geothermal springs. This is the site of another Roman city of Heiropolis.

Mineral laden water still flows through pools down the terraces today. Visitors must remove all footwear when entering these pools to prevent damage to the mineral deposits. The mineral deposits are hard and rough to walk in bare feet. There are “pool police” standing on boardwalks alongside the pools, monitoring compliance.

The image below shows the view of the city or Pamukkale, below the terraces and in the distance.

Just before sunset, we made our way to the amphitheater for a glass of wine (or bottle), while watching the sun go down. Like Ephesus, this city was also ruined by earthquakes. However, the theater was in good condition, but the stage was reconstructed.

Here was the view from the theater, as the sun set behind the mountains.

Enjoy!