More comfort driving 2 and 4 hours to our destinations.
More uncovered ruins.
This was a backgammon games — but not really portable.
One of the only “wild animals” we encountered in Turkiye.
The marble seats were all taken after they quit using it for other uses.
CLICK to hear call to prayer.
I thought I’d do a Google Translate on this, but I’m too lazy.
Amazing this much stuff is discovered after so many centuries. Job security for the archeologists.
This is very important in that it showed both Christianity and Jewism were accepted, with the cross and the menorah Usually one religion erases and wipes out the other.
This is a local Turk’s idea of fast food. It’s called a pita and can be vegetarian or with different meats. I ate almost all of it. And the ovens are used just like our fire roasted pizzas.
The language does not have silent letters so the name on the oven would be a mouthful!
This was in Pamukkale. The waters are so rich in calcium carbonate that the sides of the mountains look white, like frozen waterfalls. The calcite-laden waters have dripped down over a series of terraced levels and created a fairyland of bizarre solidified cascades and shell-shaped basins. It looks like cotton and thus the name Pamukkale, Cotton Castle.
You bet we got in the water for it’s healing properties. And we did it without slipping.
Another nice pool of thermal waters full of minerals on a hot sunny day. And a tree was growing inside our hotel.
It was HOT out in the sun at those ruins — so always glad to sit next to the pool.
Yes, that’s a bird flying into the nest with food for its babies.
CLICK.
Those birds were MAD at me just for being on my balcony.
Another ampitheater.
This was Faret our driver and Milth our Tour Guide adjustig the umbrella Milth had purchased on Amazon. An umbrella works wonders to keep the heat off your head.
These are Amazon women fighters. Don’t know if it’s true or not, but the story says they came from Asia Minor and there is an oft-repeated “fact” that Amazons had a tradition of cutting off one of their breasts. It was said that they did this to more easily fire a bow and hurl a spear. Turns out that is not true.
A mausoleum tour chamber, along with more mosaics and ruins.
This is a male fig tree. And figs from this tree are not eaten. However, if you break off a fruit, it bleeds a white substance. People put the white sap into milk to make yogurt.
Another minaret. They are needed for the townspeople to hear th call to prayer 5 times a day. Turns out 95% of Turkish people are Muslim, but only about 35% actually pray 5 times a day.
These were marble columns and to get the flued designs, they were hand sanded (probably for days!)
You can rent a boat and a captain for a week and live on the boat. Quite pricey, however.
St. Peter’s Castle
These were ancient anchors.
An albino peacock.
This is a before and after photos. Actually the statue looks like a wax sculpture and was made with the information they gleaned from her life. She had had several children and all her teeth were intact — of course she died at only about 40.
Don’t know why the blue color, but this is an actual boat that sank along with its contents that was discovered at the bottom of the sea hundreds of years later.