T2    Western and Central Turkey
        9.29-10.19  (21 days)  $3150

SEPT 30  Kusadasi
        Our bus will take us to Olympic airport for the 1-hour flight to Samos, a Greek island just off the Turkish coast. Samos reached the height of its wealth and prestige during the 6th century BC under the tyrant Polykrates, when it became the home of notable sculptors, architects, and poets. The fabulist Aesop was born here, as were the poets Ibycus and Anacreon; the most famous Samian was Pythagoras, who migrated from here to south Italy around 530. We’ll have time for a look around the capital Vathy and have lunch at the pretty village Kokari; we’ll also visit the Archaeological Museum with its incredible 16-feet high kouros and, if time permits, we’ll visit the Heraion. At 5 PM we'll take the 90-minute ferry (or 45-minute hydrofoil) to Kusadasi on the Turkish coast, where our bus will meet us and take us to our hotel.

                                      
                                                          Samos

OCT 1  Kusadasi
        Today we’ll see the Ephesus Museum and the site of ancient Ephesus.
        Ephesus was the second most important city in Greek Asia Minor during the Archaic and Classical periods (Miletus being the first), and by the Hellenistic and Roman periods Ephesus’ position was rivalled only by that of Alexandria. During antiquity Ephesus was a port; the silting of the river Kayster (a branch of the Maeander) forced the Ephesians to move twice in ancient times, and now the sea is some 7 miles to the west. The history of Ephesus is similar to that of the other Ionian cities:  colonized by Ionian Greeks (in myth, under the leadership of the Athenian prince Androklos), Ephesus became rich and culturally advanced by the end of the Archaic period, despite being conquered by the Lydian king Croesus in the 6th century and then, with the rest of Lydia, passing into the control of Persia. After the break-up of Alexander’s kingdom upon his death. Ephesus professed allegiance to virtually all the Hellenistic kingdoms at one time or another, finally coming under the power of the Pergameme kingdom and, after the death of Attalos III. entering the Roman empire. The wealth and importance of Ephesus reached its height during the first two centuries of the Roman empire, when it became the capital of the Roman province of Asia and the residence of the Roman governor. The population of Ephesus during the early empire has been estimated at close to 300,000, and it was the cultural and commercial, as well as political, center of western Asia
        Ephesus was a religious center as well. The first Greeks to arrive there found the cult of the Asian mother-goddess Kybele and transformed their own goddess Artemis into a version of this eastern deity. The original temple of Artemis was built in the 8th century, and a second was under construction when Croesus arrived in the 6th century; this temple was destroyed by arson in 356 (on the night of Alexander’s birth), and a new temple was built which was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world (the other six were the Egyptian pyramids. the Colossus of Rhodes, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the lighthouse of Alexandria, and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus). Today only a few miserable fragments remain of this famous structure. Christianity quickly achieved a foothold in Ephesus; St. John visited here (supposedly with the Virgin Mary) and his grave is in the Church of St. John (a 6th century basilica built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian). St. Paul lived in Ephesus for three years and was apparently so successful that the silversmiths who made statues of Artemis/Diana were losing money: they organized a large demonstration and Paul left town.
        By the 6th century AD silt again made the port unusable, and the city was moved to the vicinity of the Church of St. John.  Near the church was built a citadel whose ruins are the most prominent site in Selcuk today.  With the coming of the Turks Ephesus was renamed Ayasoluk (a Turkish version of the Byzantine name Ayios Theologos), and in 1914 Ayasoluk became Selcuk.

        We'll begin with a visit to the Ephesus Museum, one of the most interesting in Turkey. 

        We pass through the entrance hall to the room in which are kept the finds from the restored Roman houses called the “Terrace Villas”; note especially the large Priapus (a garden watch-god), the bronze statue of an Egyptian priest (centuries older than the house in which it was found), and the fresco of Diana (appearing here in her more familiar guise as a short-skirted huntress).  In the next two rooms pedimental sculptures from the Pollio Fountain show Odysseus blinding the Cyclops, and there are exquisite ivory furniture decorations..  In the rear courtyard are several large pieces, including a sarcophagus with reliefs of the Muses and a large curved stone inscription which stood in the harbor and listed customs and tax regulations.  The next room has pottery and funerary remains and a chart showing the various forms taken over the centuries by Anatolian goddesses.  The highlight of the museum is the display of objects from the Artemision (the precinct of Artemis), especially the two great statues of the Ephesian Artemis; she is fully clothed and looks almost like a pillar, wearing a headdress like a capital.  The rows of oval objects across her chest have been interpreted as multiple breasts, fruit, eggs, and most recently as bulls’ testicles (odd as it may seem, this last interpretation may be closest to the truth).  She seems utterly different from the Artemis of mainland Greek religion and cult, the only visual connection between the two goddesses being the numerous animals portrayed on her lower limbs (since the Greek Artemis was a huntress and was associated with forests, wild animals, and fertility).  In fact (although this probably has little, if anything, to do with their eventual identification), both Artemises perhaps derive from a common ancestress, the fertility goddess of the Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC) in Asia Minor, Greece, the Cycladic islands, and Crete (where she appears on seals as the “mistress of animals,” a title given to Artemis by the historical Greeks).  The last room contains representations of various Roman emperors. 
        After lunch in Selcuk there will be time for those who wish to visit the Byzantine church of St. John (built during the reign of Justinian).  Then we’ll drive 5 minutes to the site of ancient Ephesus (actually, the Hellenistic and Roman site; the early city, just south of the temple of Artemis, cannot be excavated because of the high water table). 
        We'll stop briefly at what remains of the Temple of Artemis (the Artemision), then drive by the Magnesia Gate and the East Gymnasium, then go on foot down the ancient road (called Curetes Street) by the Prytaneion, the Upper Agora, and the Odeion.  Next to the temple of Domitian is the Pollio Fountain, where the pediment we saw in the museum was located.  Across from the Trajan fountain and the temple of Hadrian are the restored Terrace Villas.  At present two of these villas are open; each consists of around 10 rooms around a central court and they are decorated with beautiful frescoes and mosaics.  Their owners are unknown but they must have been rich Ephesians of the Roman Imperial period.  The two buildings (separated by the famed public toilet with marble seats) are the Scholasticia Bath, restored by a Roman lady of this name in the 4th century a.d., and what used to be called the brothel; half-way between the "brothel" (now regarded as some kind of public building) and the theater a sign is etched in the marble street — a left foot, a heart, and a figure of a woman, fancifully interpreted as a sign telling passers-by that the brothel is just ahead to the left.  The two most striking buildings at Ephesus are the theater and the Library of Celsus.  The library is the tomb and memorial of Gaius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, proconsul of Asia in 106 AD, and was built by his son Aquila.  Thanks to years of restoration by the Austrian excavators, the two-story facade is virtually complete; the books were kept in rectangular niches in the walls of the inner room.

        In front of the library a three-arched gate leads to the Lower Agora; the inscription above the arches records the gate’s dedication by the freedmen Mithridates and Mazaeus to the emperor Augustus and his son-in-law Agrippa.  The theater was built probably around 300 BC and extensively remodeled during the 1st century AD.  It held 24,000 viewers and is still in use today for musical and theatrical events.  The marble road leading from the theater to the ancient harbor is named Arcadiane for the emperor Arcadius (395-408 a.d.) and was one of the few ancient streets  to have street lighting. On the north side of this road are the Harbor Baths and a gymnasium; walking between these structures we come to the lower parking lot, where our bus is waiting. Just before the parking lot a path turns off to the left to the Mary Church, a large Roman building whose west half was converted to a Christian basilica of the Virgin Mary during the 3rd century. Driving out we pass the poorly-preserved stadium and the baths of the 2nd century Vedius gymnasium.

                           
                                  Peter Lorre retired to Turkey

OCT 2  Dalyan
        This is one of the best site-seeing days of the tour, taking in Miletus, Didyma, and Euromus.
    Miletus was the most important city in the Greek world during the first part of the 6th century BC.        
        Here philosophy began, under a succession of famous names: Thales, who predicted an eclipse of the sun in 585, founded geometry, and taught that the fundamental material of the universe is water; his successor Anaximander, who taught evolution, drew the first map of the earth, and believed that the basic principle of the universe is the “Unlimited;” and Anaximander’s pupil Anaximenes, who taught that the universe is consituted by the condensation and rarefaction of divine air. Also from this period was the first Greek geographer Hekataios, who traveled in Egypt and Asia and wrote a “Journey around the World.” In 499 Miletus led a revolt against Persia (the “Ionian Revolt”) which was put down in 494 after a naval defeat at Lade, then an island off Miletus but now, thanks to the silting of the delta, one of the hills west of the ruins. During the 4th century Miletus came under the control of Mausolos of Halicarnassus, was liberated by Alexander, and eventually became part of the Roman province of Asia. It shared in the wealth of the Roman empire, but gradually declined as shipping was prevented by the silting of the harbor.
        From the parking lot we walk directly to the theater (the water in the plan by the entrance to the site is of course no longer in our path). The theater, originally built in the 4th century, was enlarged during Hellenistic and Roman times from a capacity of 5,300 to 25,000. Only the bottom half of the seating area is preserved; the large structure in the upper part of the audience is part of a Byzantine fortress. Walking around the theater and over the theater hill, we come to the port and city center. Two hellenistic lion statues guard the entrance to the harbor, and the large harbor monument  commemorates Pompey’s victory over the pirates in 63 BC and Augustus’ victory at Actium in 31. The harbor gate leads via the Processional Road to the South Agora.  To the left of the gate are a Greco-Roman bath and the Delphinion, a Hellenistic precinct of Apollo. On the left side of the road are a partially reconstructed Ionic Stoa, a 15th century Selcuk bath, the Capito baths, a Hellenistic gymnasium, and a 2nd century AD fountain-house. On the right side are the North Agora , and the Bouleuterion.  Next we come to a long storehouse and a small temple of Serapis with a well-preserved pediment.
        Our final stops are at the Ilyas Bey mosque, completed in 1404 and one of the great examples of Selcuk architecture, and at the monumental Faustina bath complex, built by the wife of the emperor Marcus Aurelius.

                             
                                              Miletus:  Ionic Stoa

        From Miletus a Sacred Road led to the sanctuary of Apollo at Didyma, and we’ll now follow this route.

        Didyma was never a city; it was the religious center for Miletus and one of the most famous oracles of antiquity. The archaic temple  (which, according to Pausanias, replaced an earlier [i.e., indigenous] cult shrine), was renowned throughout the Greek world; before it was destroyed by the Persians in 494 BC., it received gifts from the Pharaoh Necho and from Croesus of Lydia. A new larger temple on the same model was begun by 300 BC and still not completed 500 years later: most of this temple still stands.
         A small inner temple (naiskos), which once contained a statue of Apollo, is within the interior walls (cella); the room in which the oracles were actually delivered is up a flight of stairs at the opposite end of the courtyard, flanked on either side by labyrinths.  The entrances to the courtyard are through tunnels under the labyrinths. The dimensions of the whole temple are 623 by 167 feet.

                    
                                       Didyma:  fallen column      

      From Didyma we’ll drive south to the Mediterranean coast, stopping once to see the 2nd century Temple of Zeus at ancient Euromus, a pleasant contrast to the gigantic temple at Didyma.
      We'll reach the Mediterranean at Dalyan, a picturesque village on the Dalyan River. 

OCT 3  Yacht
        High on the cliff-side opposite the village is one of the most imposing sights in Lycia, a group of Karian temple-tombs carved into the rock, most of them from the 4th century BC.  Dalyan is a very pleasant village, with good restaurants overlooking the rushing river and a spectacular view of the temple-tombs.
        We’ll charter a small boat for the trip down the river, passing first through forests of reeds like a scene from The African Queen, to the site of ancient Kaunos. Once a bustling port, Kaunos is now separated from the sea by about three miles of marsh. The most interesting ruins at Kaunos are a Roman nymphaeum called the Fountain of Vespasian, a circular structure which may have been a pool, and, on a higher level, a Roman bath, an early Christian church, and a small but well-preserved theater. The long sandbar at the mouth of the Dalyan River was for several years the subject of a raging dispute between developers and conservationists; the latter wanted to protect the area, which is one of the last breeding places for the Mediterranean sea turtle, and against all expectations they won!

                                  
                                                     Karian tombs at Dalyan

        Then we'll drive 90 minutes to Fethiye, where we'll meet our private yacht, or gulet.  These typical Turkish motor sailers are hand-made of pine and teak, averaging 70-100 feet in length, with two masts and 6-10 cabins.  We'll stay on the boat tonight and for the next four days and nights. 

                
                                                  The Roman bath at Perge

OCT 10  Egirdir

OCT 12  Cappadocia
         Our base in Cappadocia is Urgup, and from here the most famous places and sights of Cappadocia are only a few minutes’ drive. Since the strangeness of Cappadocia requires for description a literary style more florid than my talents allow. I quote the following from John Freely’s Companion Guide to Turkey:

“Most of this part of Cappadocia is covered with a deep layer of tufa, a soft stone of solidified mud, ash and lava which once poured down from the now extinct volcanoes on Hasan Dagi and Erciyes Dagi, the two great mountain peaks of Cappadocia. In the eons since then the rivers of the region have scoured canyons, gorges, valleys and gulleys through the soft and porous stone, and the elements have eroded it into fantastic crags. folds, turrets. pyramids, spires, needles, stalagmites, and cones, creating a vast outdoor display of stone sculptures in an incredible variety of shapes and colors. The cone is the most frequent form in Cappadocia’s lunar landscape: many of them stand more than a hundred feet tall, some in groups and others standing alone like eccentric obelisks or sand castles fashioned by a giant child. Many of them are topped by a fragment of the basalt strata which once lay above the tufa; these huge rocks protected the tufa directly beneath them while the surroundings were eroded away. These black basalt capitals, balanced precariously   on the fantastic phallic cones, are known by the locals as pen bacalari, or fairy chimneys. The predominant color in some areas is brick-red, rust, ochre, or umber, while in others it may be ashen or even salt-white; but the sensuous rock surfaces subtly change their hues with the shifting patterns of sunlight and shadow. here and there deepening into pools of midnight blue, deep violet, or even an ephemeral green, and then at twilight the whole countryside is pervaded with an evanescent pink and golden glow, fading into a palette of pale pastels as night falls on this enchanted landscape.  What nature has left undone in the way of phantasmagoric architecture has been completed by the restless ingenuity of man; for since time immemorial the Cappadocians have been cutting into the cones and walls of rock, excavating and carving rupestrine houses. storerooms, churches and monasteries, many of them elaborately sculptured and adorned with vivid and imaginative frescoes capturing the religious visions of medieval Byzantine Christianity. 

  Urgup and most other villages in this part of Cappadocia are either perched on spires of rock or hollowed out of precipices or gigantic cones, with the doors and windows of their dwellings giving the appearance of a huge honeycomb or dovecote. Even the free-standing houses have been built of volcanic rock, and many of them have handsome arcades with facades and portals decorated with carved and sculptured designs; while some Cappadocians burrow into the hillsides and live like modem cavemen, but far more comfortably. For the apparently arid soil is incredibly fertile, and the local residents live very well on the abundant produce of their vegetable gardens, orchards and vineyards. The wine of the region is deservedly famous, with a heady aroma like a whiff of brimstone.”

        Ten minutes from our hotel in Urgup is Uchisar, a village on the edge of the enormous erosion basin of the Goreme valley. A medieval fortress is carved into the great rock at the top of the hill (it looks like a piece of Swiss cheese 200 feet high), and from the top of the fortress you can see all of Cappadocia. A few miles northeast is Goreme, where the rock churches are displayed in an “open-air museum”; unfortunately, beginning in 1989 the local organization which runs the site insists that all tourists be accompanied by a guide and they charge exorbitant prices. The most spectacular “fairy chimneys” are at Zilve, and we’ll make frequent stops to look around and take pictures. The most interesting town (and the best shopping) in Cappadocia is Urgup, where we’ll have lunch and spend the afternoon.
        Unless one has a special interest in medieval Anatolian iconography, the decorations in the rock churches can be disappointing. The architecture, however, is striking, especially since the process of construction is opposite the usual; whereas a conventional church architect would begin with an empty space and proceed to fill part of it with columns, walls, etc., the Cappadocian architect starts with a solid mass and his task, in effect, is to create empty space. In any case, even if there were no churches or cave-dwellings at all in this area, the extraordinary “lunar landscape” is one of the strangest and most spectacular sights in the world.
        It’s not known when the Cappadocian monastic movement started, but it may be as early as the 4th century; the monasteries flourished, especially after the 9th century, until the Osmanli and Mongol incursions of the 13th century. Even after they had been abandoned for religious purposes, the rock churches and dwellings continued to be used as shops and homes, and some are still lived in today.
        Our next stop will be at the underground city of Kaymakli, one of several such sites in this area (one other is open to the public, the city of Derinkuyu to the south). Beginning around the 7th century, these enormous subterranean labyrinths were created to provide shelter for whole populations against attack by Arab raiders. Kaymakli and Derinkuyu each could hold 12-15,000 people in at least eight connected levels of living quarters, storerooms, kitchens, and chapels. Ventilation shafts provided air, water came from interior wells, and the entrances could be blocked off with great round stones (like millstones) in case of danger. The walk along the marked path takes about 30 minutes.

OCT 13  Hattusas
         We’ll leave early for the drive north to Hattusas, ancient capital of the Hittite empire. At Hattusas there are really two sites, about 1 mile apart: Yazilikaya, the Hittite religious sanctuary, and Hattusas itself. We’ll begin at Yazilikaya, an open-air shrine known for its relief carvings of the Hittite pantheon.
        Only the foundations remain of the buildings in front of the sanctuary: a propylaion, a temple with annex, and a smaller gateway.  Entrance to the large gallery was from the temple, entrance to the small gallery was from the smaller gateway. The large gallery contained relief sculptures of the Hittite gods and goddesses, with gods on the west wall and goddesses on the east; the division is not precise, however, since three goddesses are included on the west and one god is portrayed on the east. The north wall (between contains the chief divinities, the weather god Teshub, his wife Hepatu, and their son Sharruma. At the end of the line of goddesses is a large relief of King Tudhaliya IV (note that gods wear cone-shaped caps, while kings wear skull- caps).

        As the small gallery seems to be a mortuary chamber the two animal-headed figures at its entrance are probably demons to scare away intruders. The east wall of the small gallery has a Sword-God and a wonderful relief of the god Sharruma holding King Tudhaliya in his left arm. The west wall holds a procession of 12 cone-head gods.
        It is thought that the temple and the reliefs of deities in the large gallery were built by Hattusili III (1275-1250) and that his son Tudhaliya IV (1250-1220) enlarged the temple and built the small gallery and the self-portrait.  In other words Tudhaliya had his own tomb constructed while he was still alive, perhaps as a kind of apotheosis. There seems to be an identification in which the god Teshub, his wife Hepatu. and their son Sharruma are parallel to King Hattusili III, his wife Puduhepa, and their son Tudhaliya IV.
        The name Hattusas is a Hittite form of Hattus, the name of the city under the Hattites. The Hattite city was destroyed by the Hittite king Anitta around 1800, but shortly after became the Hittite capital. The lower city was built on the site of the Hattite city, where there also had been an Assyrian trading colony: the upper city was built during the Empire period (1450-1180) and the whole city was destroyed with the downfall of the Empire in 1180.
        The sheer size of the site (as well as a lot of barbed wire fences) compel us to drive around it, alighting at certain select places.  As we drive down and around from Yazilikaya , we pass first the site of the Assyrian trading colony and then the great temple of the Storm-God.  Taking the right fork we continue on the road uphill to our first stop, the Lion Gate.  Each of the three gates in the southern fortification wall at the highest point of the city is named for the relief sculptures beside the gate; the others are the Sphinx Gate and the King’s Gate (misnamed).  The tunnel under the Sphinx Gate is 240 feet long and is thought to have been a sally port.  The other structures whose foundations we see as we drive through the upper city are four temples, the New Castle, and the Yellow Castle.  Returning to the lower city we come first to the South Citadel and then to Buyukkale, the Great Citadel.  One of the buildings on the Great Citadel seems to have been an archives storeroom, the oldest library in history; over 3000 inscribed clay tablets were found in it.  Our last stop is at the main temple; it was apparently dedicated to both the Storm God (Teshub) and the Sun Goddess of Arinna (Hepatu), and their twin statues may have stood in two rooms of the ritual annex to the temple. 
        The temple itself is a series of rooms around a courtyard, with the ritual annex of 12 rooms on the northeast, and it stood in turn in a courtyard formed by storerooms and offices on all four sides.  In two rooms  thousands of cuneiform tablets were found in 1907.  The main entrance seems to have been through a gate.  Opposite the paved road on the south side of the temple complex is another set of rooms and buildings around a courtyard, in which a mysterious blue-green stone (an altar?) stands.  This complex may have served the administrative structure of the temple, and the same may be true for the many rooms on a lower level west of the temple.
        Because of the sloping ground, the rooms surrounding the temple were on three floors on the north side, two floors elsewhere.  Only the lower part of the temple and these other structures were built of stone, the upper part being of sun-dried brick.  At many places you can see regular circular holes on the top of the stone blocks; these held bases for the wooden framework of the brick sections.
        We'll eat lunch near the site, then drive on to Ankara.

OCT 14  Ankara
        Ankara, Turkey’s capital since 1923, is a large (well over 3 million) but very pleasant city, built on a hilly landscape with many trees and parks.  As in Istanbul, the first impression is the teeming mass of people—the chief difference is that in Ankara all these people look like they have a good middle-class job.
        The major attraction of Ankara, perhaps of all Turkey, is the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, one of the world’s truly great museums.  Even if there were nothing inside, the building itself is worth a visit; it is the restored bazaar built in 1464-1471 by Mahmut Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Mehmet the Conqueror.  The museum is just below the ancient citadel of Ankara, and from the front terrace you have a superb view looking down on the city. 

                         
                       Ankara Museum:  Hattite standard and idol     
 
      The museum, recently renovated, is arranged chronologically, going anti-clockwise from the entrance.  The first exhibits are Palaeolithic (before 7000 b.c.) and Neolithic (7000-5500), and include striking wall-paintings, fertility figurines, and a restored sanctuary from Catalhuyuk.  Next comes the Chalcolithic (bronze implements are beginning to appear) period (5500-3000) with tools and weapons, painted pottery, and many more goddess figures.  The second half of the west hall is devoted to the first half of the Bronze Age proper (3000-2000) and contains (in my opinion) the most amazing objects of all, the Hattite bronzes (especially the symmetrical stags with colossal branching antlers) and fertility idols in gold, silver, and electrum.  DO NOT MISS the relief sculpture of a helmeted warrior, perhaps the god Teshub, next to the door leading into the central hall; it is from the King’s Gate at Hattusas and is the finest example of Hittite relief sculpture.  The first half of the south (back) hall has finds from the Assyrian Trading Colony period (1950-1750); most are from Kultepe, the city near Kayseri.  Here you’ll see cuneiform tablets written in Old Assyrian, the earliest example of writing in Anatolia.  The rest of the south hall has pottery and hieroglyphic inscriptions from the Old Hittite Kingdom (1700-1450).  At this point you should turn and enter the central hall, where are kept the sculptures, mostly orthostatic reliefs, from the Hittite Empire (1450-1180) and the Neo-Hittite period (1180-700).  Returning to the perimeter halls, the east hall has antiquities from the Urartian period (900-600, from east Turkey around Lake Van), the Phrygian period (750-550, from central and west Anatolia), and a few from the Greek and Roman periods. 
        From the museum we’ll go for lunch in a restored mansion in the Old Town of Ankara, then drive around the most interesting monuments and neighborhoods of Ankara to the hilltop mausoleum of Ataturk; besides the big neoclassical temple which holds only his sarcophagus, there is also a small museum of Ataturk’s personal effects and various other displays (his cars, for example). 
        We’ll leave Ankara for the drive west to Istanbul.  The formerly long drive has been shortened by the completion of a  super-highway, and there is some gorgeous alpine scenery around Bolu.  We’ll arrive in Istanbul early evening.

Istanbul, Archaeological Museum:  frieze from the "Alexander" sarcophagus

Istanbul, Archaeological Museum:  Diana

Istanbul, Museum of the Ancient Orient: :fragment of Ishtar Gate, Babylon