Historical tour

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Tue 8 Sep 2009 20:16
Tuesday 8th August

Seems that 24 year old lads on holiday do not get up very early.

Not much happened this morning and most of that passed him by, so we didn't
set off to visit the castle and the Museum of Underwater Archaeology until
around 1.30 pm.

The castle and the museum are very well worth the entry price and the museum
is reckoned to be one of the most important of its kind in the world.
Certainly in the 1960's they found and recovered a lot of wrecks around the
Turkish coast and have gathered together here an impressive array of
artefacts that are generally very well displayed, including all manner of
finds dating as far back as 15th century BC.

The castle was built by the Knights of St John around 1437 but taken from
them without a struggle around 100 years later. It fell largely into decline
from then on and took a bit of a beating when a French battleship shelled it
and the town in May 1915. Its reconstruction started in the 1960's when it
was used to house all the stuff they were recovering from the various
ancient wrecks and now is a very impressive place to visit. (Just hope the
UK's H & S officers never get near the place!)

Weather has stayed fine and looks to be OK for the rest of the week at the
moment and so we will move on tomorrow heading north perhaps to Gumusluk
again.