Kusadasi Turkey

On Saturday, we arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey, located on the Aegean Sea in southwest Turkey (in what was called Anatolia, or Asia Minor up until Roman times).  Most people who come here, come because it is a seaside resort town (many Europeans own second homes here, as the cost of comparable real estate is less than 40% of what it would be along the Mediterranean in Europe).  The other reason people stop in Kusadasi is because of its proximity to Ephesus.  In the 10^th century BC, Ephesus was built and controlled by the Greeks until 129 BC when it was overtaken by the Roman Empire.  Since we had been to Ephesus 3 years ago, I decided on another adventure.

Miletus

The ancient harbor city of Miletus was the economic and cultural center of the eastern Aegean.  At the turn of the 5^th Century BC, Miletus led an unsuccessful uprising of Greek Ionian cities against Persian rule and it was destroyed. Renewed prosperity during the Hellenistic and Roman periods led to a rebirth of the city.  Later, continuous siltation of the Maeander delta cut Miletus off from the open sea and led to annual flooding of the ancient city center.  The harbor did, however, remain functional and was now accessed by the river, but eventually that silted too.  Today the site is 5 miles from the open sea.

Picture 1 gives some idea of what archeologists believe the city looked like.  It was a well-planned city, a model for future cities and towns.  However, today, very little of this has been excavated, and the site is inaccessible.

There is a very nice modern museum, which outlines its history, and displays lots of artifacts – the usual assortment of items of bronze, pottery, and glass. Stone and marble figures abound, both in the museum and in its garden, Picture 2.  The bulk of what is available to explore is from the Roman Period.

The Baths of Faustina were built in the middle of the 2^nd  century AD in honor of the empress Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius;  Picture 3 shows the entrance to the baths. On the right is what is left of the gymnasium, and straight through the wall, puts you in the reception hall.  Picture 4 is in the reception area, notice all the small alcoves along both sides, these were used as changing rooms and  places to rest.  Pictures 5 and 6 are in the fridgedarium or cold bath.  After completing the cold bath, bathers would move on to the tepidarium, or warm room, and after the tepidarium, bathers went to the caldarium, or hot room, Picture 7.

Notice the structure on the hill in Picture 8. This is the Theater.  Picture 9, shows what remains of the Harbor Gate, which leads to the sacred road, connecting several villages going out from Miletus.

The Theater is shown in Pictures 10-11.  This structure was built by the Romans, replacing a 5300 seat Hellenistic theater.  The Roman Theater expanded the seating to 15,000 on three tiers.  Today, the first tier is well restored, the second tier is just so-so, and the third tier has since been dismantled and replaced with a Byzantine castle.

The site today is surrounded by very fertile land.  A significant crop is cotton, and given the climate, they often have two harvests in a year.  The fields in the immediate area are littered with huge stones, pediments and capitals, as well as well-worn examples of statues.

Picture 12, is a photo of a photograph taken by a professional photographer (Rick forgot his camera) at a special event for the 80+ passengers that participated in the full world cruise, along with many of the ships management.  It was taken in front of the Celsus Library façade at Ephesus, where we had a wonderful Turkish dinner, along with a surprisingly good Turkish red wine, while listening to a string trio.  After dinner, we headed over to the Theater area, where tables were set up for us and the remainder of the 450 passengers of our ship for a chamber orchestra concert of classical music, as the sun set over this magical place.  It was an amazing evening.

On to Corfu and Croatia.

Rhodes

Rhodes was sunny and in the 70s and we had a wonderful visit to the Lindos Acropolis. Picture 1 shows Lindos and the Acropolis. Lindos is one of the “white villages” because everything is painted white. Similar to other Greek islands in this respect, it differs in the color of the trim. In Rhodes the trim is brown. In Santorini, for example, the trim is blue.

What you see on the top of the hill are the remains of the Acropolis, surrounded by a medieval castle. Archaeologists have determined that the original Acropolis looked like the image in Picture 2. It was built on 4 levels in the 4^th to 6^th century BC. What remains today is shown in Picture 3. There’s an original store room from level 1, the vaulted areas on level 2, the plaza area over the arches and some columns on level 3 and the plaza and remains of the Temple to Athena Lindia on top.

Athena Lindia was the Greek goddess of fertility. The image shown in Picture 4 (number12 on the Acropolis image above) is what the original temple looked like. Picture 5 is a picture of the remains today. Obviously, Athena Lindia was the basis for the name of the village Lindos.

In the 12^th century, the Knights of St. John, of Crusader fame, built a fortress around the ruins. A close-up of the entrance is shown in Picture 6. They also built the Church of Ayios Ioannis, shown in Picture 7, on the plaza of level 3.

From the top we had lovely views of the rugged coastal areas and beautiful blue water of the Aegean Sea. Picture 8 shows the view of St. Paul’s Bay from the top. There’s a small opening in the rocks on the left side that let small boats into the bay.

Natural oddity of the day: Picture 9 shows a string of interconnected caterpillars. The entire length was 2-3 feet and each caterpillar was about 1 inch long. This seems to be one of the few places where caterpillars will actually do this.

Finally, Rhodes City is worth a visit itself. Unfortunately we didn’t have time—next time…. Picture 10 shows the view from the ship. The old city is entirely walled and the castle in the middle is also from the Knights of St. John.

On to Turkey….

Israel

Israel has 2 main ports: Ashdod and Haifa. The ship spent one day docked in each. Since we spent a week in Israel a few years ago, we decided to not go to Jerusalem, but to find lesser-known sites instead.

On our first day we wandered through Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Jaffa is a delightful old city, referred to in the Old and New Testaments. It was a walled city, although the wall has disappeared. Jaffa sits on a hill and it turns out that it’s sitting on an old Egyptian settlement, where a raid similar to the Trojan-horse episode occurred 700 years prior to the Trojan horse.

Jaffa has always had a tricky harbor to maneuver. Picture 1 shows the original lighthouse, which required a fire to be burning inside the little dome. Picture 2 shows a typical street in the old medieval city.

Picture 3 shows one of the more famous streets. This is where Napoleon chose to attack the then-Turkish city. Turkish sharpshooters repelled the attackers for some time, until one Captain figured out that the door on the right led to the cellars, which ran for some distance under the city. Game over! Napoleon wins! Napoleon then gathered approximately 3000 of the enemy, from all over the Arab world. He singled out the Egyptians, took their rifles and shoes and sent them home, since he had just conquered Egypt. The remainder he lined up and killed. Nice guy….

Picture 4 is a view of Tel Aviv from Jaffa. It was interesting to see drawings and pictures from earlier times. Tel Aviv was a sand dune! Tel Aviv is a modern, sprawling city, with no ancient history. We were told that it had a vibrant restaurant and café scene that rivaled New York and Paris. Not being “fun people”, we can’t personally attest to that!

While docked in Haifa, we took a 10-hour tour to Galilee and the Golan Heights. Geographically, this is northern Israel which extends to the Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian borders.

We started at Zippori National Park, which encompasses the small village, and archeological treasure trove, of Zippori. It has been both a Roman village and a crusader village.  A top find here is a mosaic floor (Picture 5) from a wealthy person’s home. It contains stories about Dionysus, but mystery surrounds the woman shown in Picture 6. She’s called the Mona Lisa of Galilee, but no one has ever identified her. Picture 7 show’s the toilet found just outside the dining room shown in Picture 5. No comfy seats here!

Picture 8 shows the Zippori Citadel, which was built by the crusaders in the 12^th century. If you look at the lower right corner of the front, you will see 2 large white blocks. The Crusaders recycled 2 Roman sarcophagi to reduce the number of blocks that had to be cut from the surrounding hillside. As we walked around the building, we found a total of 6 reused sarcophagi.

We visited 2 famous bodies of water. Picture 9 is the Sea of Galilee, with a sea level marker in the foreground. It’s not just the Dead Sea that’s below sea level; the Sea of Galilee is 200+ feet below sea level too. Connecting the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea is the Jordan River, shown in Picture 10. It actually starts in the hills up toward Lebanon.  

While the Jordan River did look tranquil in the picture above, nearby it’s very busy. Yardenit is the designated site where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. Today, it is a busy pilgrimage sight with a grand gift shop operated by an Israeli Kibbutz! Picture 11 shows one priest baptizing pilgrims from Ethiopia. All purchase a white robe from the gift shop and immerse themselves in the river. The priest in black stays dry. Individual pilgrims fill a plastic container that holds about 1 gallon of water and hand it to the priest. The priest then pours it over them and touches their forehead and lips with a cross. Picture 12 shows another priest in the water, who is splashing water on the faces of other pilgrims. An interesting experience….

We then climbed onto the Golan Heights, which is a drive that provides spectacular scenery. We were in the area where Syria, Jordan and Israel meet. Pictures 13 and 14 show views across the borders. Occasionally, however, the drive reminds us of the political situation in that region. Picture 15 shows a Syrian-built bunker from the period when Syria controlled the Golan Heights. (There were also signs warning about unexploded Syrian mines left here….) Today, Israel maintains a field hospital at the Syrian border to fix, heal and feed Syrian refugees. They are then sent back across the border. Our guide explained that they had to help their neighbors—the people they help are not the ones causing political problems. How true….

Our next stop was Capernaum, with a sign at the entrance to the town that called it “Jesus’ Town”. According to the Bible, Jesus visited Capernaum and stayed with the Apostle Peter’s inlaws. While there, he also visited the synagogue. Picture 16 shows a new, modern church, which was built over the remains of Peter’s inlaws’ house, with a clear floor that allows you to look into the house below. It was a little sketchy about how they knew whose house it was, but our guide seemed quite certain. Turning 180 degrees from the view shown in Picture 16, you see the remains of the synagogue, shown in Picture 17. Over time they’ve determined that the synagogue ruins shown are not the synagogue Jesus visited, but the darker foundation below is believed to be the remains of Jesus’ synagogue. That Jesus visited seems pretty certain, but we’re not as convinced that we’ve gotten the buildings documented correctly!

Our final stop was at the beautiful Baha’I Gardens (Picture 18). Haifa is the world headquarters of the Baha’I religion and the gardens there are spectacular. Our guide explained that the Baha’i religion is like Islam updated, where women are given equal rights.

Interestingly, 4 religions claim Israel as a key site in their history: Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Baha’i. Now if these 4 religions could just get everyone in the region to live peacefully….

Greece, Turkey, Croatia and Italy—only a few more days.

Petra Jordan and the Suez Canal

From the Red Sea we hung a right and entered the Gulf of Aqaba, docking in Aqaba Jordan and taking a day trip to Petra. This meant we only had a little over 3 hours, which wouldn’t be enough for your first trip to Petra, but since we were there a few years ago, it was long enough for a re-visit. We ditched the guide and wandered with our cameras. As we compared it to the other 6 wonders of the modern world, we decided that Petra might rank number 1—at least in our humble opinions!

Since we ditched the guide, there’s only a brief history lesson. Petra (pronounced pee-tra, rather than pe-tra) was built by the Nabateans some 2200 years ago. The Romans came in and took over, but eventually left giving it back to the Nabateans. Petra was gradually abandoned by the 15^th century and was not discovered until 1812, by Johann Ludwig Burckhards.

The Nabateans kept the Romans out for a long time because of the Bab as-Siq, called just “The Siq” today. It’s a half-mile cleft between the rocks that’s barely the width of 2 horses in some places.  Getting to Petra requires physical exercise. The distance from the visitor center to the Siq is another half mile. Walking through the excavated part of Petra is another half mile each way. So just to visit requires a minimum walk of 3 miles—going out is uphill! If you visit the Monastery, which we didn’t have time for this trip, it’s a 2-mile round trip.

Pictures 1-3 show some of the beautiful views walking through the Siq. Once the Romans arrived, they did make some interesting improvements. On both sides of the Siq, they carved aqueducts out of the rock to carry water from a reservoir at the beginning of the Siq, downhill to Petra. Picture 4 shows an example. They made clay tiles to fit inside and covered the tiles with mud to provide a waterproof surface. They then covered the aqueducts with stones to provide clean water to Petra. In a couple places you can still see the covering and original tiles.

If you look at Picture 5, you will ask “What are these people queuing up for?” They’re queuing to take their Indiana-Jones-moment photo, shown in Picture 6. Can’t remember which of the Indiana Jones movies was filmed here, but imagine Harrison Ford on horseback and the first view of the treasury.

The treasury, shown in Picture 7, is the first big building you encounter as you make your last bend in the Siq. It’s also the best-preserved building. The façade, as you see it here, is about 130 feet tall. It’s also a great example of how Petra was built. They didn’t carve blocks and columns and stack them up. They looked at the rock wall and carved out everything that didn’t look like a building. All the buildings are essentially caves that were carved into the rock. Imagine the vision that took!

The rock here is all sandstone and, over time, has worn away—not uniformly. Picture 8 shows one façade that has formed an interesting pattern of rock as it wears away.

Picture 9 shows several homes carved into the hillside—an apartment complex of sorts.

Picture 10 is the Main Theater. Again, this was carved from the hillside.

Picture 11 is the Royal Tomb complex. Picture 12 is a close-up of the façade of one of the royal tombs.

The main street goes by all of these spectacular buildings. When the Romans arrived, they names this street the Cardo Maximus and proceeded to pave it with stones and build colonnaded shops along the side, similar to what we’ve seen at other Roman ruins. That area is being restored today and is a jumble of columns and stone pieces. The Romans also added the Temenos Gate, shown in Picture 13, which separated the commercial part of the city from the sacred area.

Finally, as you walk to the end of the excavated part of town, you see the trail leading up to the Monastery, shown in Picture 14. On our last visit we made the hike up there—several hundred feet of elevation and a mile of walking up to the top of a plateau, where the monastery, looking much like the Treasury, still stands.

The trip to Petra from Aqaba takes you along the Asian-African rift—the great chasm created as the continents collided. Picture 15 shows scenery looking out over the rift. As you can see from the pictures, the weather in Petra was sunny (and very hot). On our way back to Aqaba we had a sandstorm and a few drops of rain, making everything a bit gloomy.

Following a day at sea, as we worked our way around the Sinai Peninsula, we queued up to enter the Suez Canal. It’s a one-way street, allowing about 50 ships to go north and then 50 ships to go south. We entered the canal at about 6:00 in the morning and exited about 4:30 in the afternoon. The Suez Canal is different from other canals we’ve seen. There are no locks. It’s just a big ditch that was dug between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Picture 16 shows a view from the bow of our ship. Picture 17 shows the line of ships behind us. The west bank of the canal is populated and fairly green. The east bank is desert, as shown in Picture 18. We saw only one city of any size on the east bank.

Into the Mediterranean and on to Israel….