37 52.222N 027 15.768E Kusadasi, Turkey
Pipedream
Wed 27 Apr 2011 19:02
Back tracking to Didim we took the Dolmus (short bus) out to the temple of Apollo, about 10 miles out of town. The temple of Apollo predates the Oracle of Delphi by about 200 years. This is also billed as the largest temple in Turkey. The overall ruin was in pretty good shape and the single structure and columns were of gigantic proportions. The column bases were maybe 15 to 20 feet in diameter and the rest was scaled accordingly. The bus rides to these places are always an adventure. There were no chickens on the roof of the bus but you get to meet lots of real people and of course other tourists. The country side is also the real deal and they haven't been out to paint the one side the tourists see as they go by yet.
Kusadasi is a pretty large city. We had about a 15 block walk from the marina to the bus station ( maybe one restaurant barker/collector per block) where we caught the bus to ruins of Ephesus, the capital city of the Roman province of Asia. The city started about 6000 BC. I believe the first big pyramid in Egypt were started around 4000BC. To quote my sister "This is the biggest rock pile in Turkey." It was big and partially restored. Lots of standing columns of every variety. Two theaters the big one seated 24,000! We read some place that the city had 200,000 inhabitants at it's peak. The best structure was the library building that had two complete stories of columns and statues (surely reproductions as the originals are likely in the English museum.)
Engineering note... sewer pipes were clay? about two feet long sections maybe 8" but were sleeved with and inner pipe. Could have been a repair technique. Most of these ruins were destroyed by fires and earthquakes. What could burn? There must have been a lot of wood, and textiles, inside all this stone.
We flagged down the bus for the ride home - not even standing room by the time we picked everyone up they could fit in the luggage space (two kids). We both caved when we got back to the boat - couple of ibpropan for the knees and a nap.
We will likely stay here one more day for some R&R and some quick boat maintenance - time to kill some rust spots. Shopping looks like it will be pretty good and we'll be off to our next port, Teos.