Previous Day (Ephesus)
Destination: Greece & Turkey
Duration: 18 Days 17 Nights (Aug 06~Aug 23, 2012)
Day 7: Priene, Didyma and Miletus
We continued our life in ruins by visiting more ruins! First
stop of the day was Priene – an ancient Greek city of Ionia at the base of an
escarpment of Mycale. It was once on the sea coast but as landscape changes
over time, it’s now few kilometers inland.
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| Breakfast Photo! The Fried Potato with Sesame was Special |
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| Priene - Long way to climb... |
There were stairs and slope involved to get to Priene – a morning exercise! *short of breath* My Gosh, who sign up for this tour?! We were told that this was the hardest archeological site to excavate due to its landscape. Well, I could definitely attest to that!
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| Half Dead there! Why so many Stairs? |
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| Finally there... |
Our guide showed us the evidence of drainage system in the city built thousand years ago and then we continued to the Temple of Athena. When the guide stopped at the sacrifice altar to explain to us what that place was for, our mind immediately think of Sammy! What a great picture it would be if Sammy would be lying on the Sacrifice Alter!!!! Then the unimaginable disaster happened! Apparently Sammy had decided to skip today’s program by staying in hotel.. *sob* Thus no Sammy photos today.. *sad*
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| Another Building for Political Discussion |
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| Look at the Drainage System! |
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| The Sacrificing Altar - But Sammy was not there! *cry* |
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| Temple of Athena |
Our next sighting was a Byzantine Church among the Greek structures – it was built during the Byzantine period. Church and Temple together, that’s the beauty of ancient ruins in Turkey! We continued to the Theatre – the difference between this theatre and the other theatre that we visited previously was the seating right in the edge of the stage – it was supposedly seat for VIP. There were also Gymnasium and bathhouse in Priene as well.
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| The Church |
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| The Altar |
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| The Theatre |
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| This was where the VIP sat |
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| Gym & Bath! |
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| The Main Street |
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| Random Houses |
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| Marble Base of Some unfinished Building |
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| Rocks at the side of Priene |
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| Going down to the Van |
Our second destination of the day was Miletus with its magnificent theatre and the Byzantine fortress on the acropolis above. The 1st building that greeted us was the huge theatre – of course there were more stairs for us to get to it. *facepalm* We walked through a corridor to arrive at the ruined Byzantine castle on a hill behind the theater to have a panoramic view of widely scattered ruins. We could see the “Sacred Way” structure from afar as well as many others.
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| The Theatre at Miletus |
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| Up & Down to get to the Corridor |
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| Griffins? |
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| The Theatre from the Top, the Columns was the seats for Imperial |
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| A Doggie sleeping at the Corridor... |
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| The Corridor |
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| The View of the City from the Top |
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| The Ruined Byzantine Castle |
We did not walk to all of the scattered ruins though, we did went to the Baths of Faustina with water fountains in the shape of river god and a lion. There were lots of different baths there – cold pool, warm pool, hot pool and even private pool. You had to pay to get into these pools in ancient time.
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| Entrance to the Baths of Faustina |
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| Changing Rooms! |
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| This is the Cold Pool - see the River God and Lion? |
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| This was leading to the Hot Pool |
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| Another Pool filled with Dirt |
After Miletus, we went for our lunch at a deserted restaurant near Didyma. This was where we 1st experienced Fig! Interesting fruit!
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| The Turkish Appetizer |
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| Food |
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| Main Course |
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| Oops.. All Carbo! |
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| This is Fig! |
We walked to Didyma after lunch – it was the largest Ionic Temple in the world, that of Apollo. Also in Didyma lies the huge, cracked head of Medusa which long ago fell from the frieze. Ancient people used to walk all the way from Miletus with via sacred way to Didyma – a 17km long path. The temple was really gigantic and contained tunnel between different sections.
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| More Doggie! |
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| Medusa - did you turn into a stone by staring at her eyes? |
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| The Gigantic Temple of Apollo - Largest Temple in the World |
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| Look at how big the Column is... |
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| Getting into the tunnel to get to another side |
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| Lots of Stairs again... |
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| More Ruins |
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| Look at How small I was in front of the columns |
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| Sign of Christianity in Temple of Apollo |
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| Another Big Columns |
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| Beautiful Carving |
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| Random Stall near Didyma |
After our day tour, we asked the guide to drop us right in front of Kusadasi Port. There laid the Scala Nuova Shopping Center – the only shopping center that we’d managed to get in on our entire trip. We did manage to grab some stuff there. =P
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| Pigeon Island from the Van |
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| The Grand Bazaar |
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| Let's go shopping! |
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| Hmm.. this is not real! But Kusadasi is full of toys like this! |
We walked along the coastline to get to Pigeon Island – a symbol of Kusadasi. In Ottoman period, the island was used to secure shores and preventing attacks from the sea by the military. There was a byzantine castle on the island used against pirates thus it was called “Pirate Castle”!
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| Walking to Pigeon Island |
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| The Fortress of Pirate Castle!!!! Yo! |
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| View from Pigeon Island |
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| Another View |
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| The Castle Entrance - apparently it was closed |
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| A Panoramic View from Pigeon Island |
After Pigeon Island, we walked to the main bazaar and got a Pita Kebab from a random shop. The chicken kebab was only 3 Lira and it tasted great! We went back to Ozcelik Hotel and their dinner choice was as limited as usual but this time there were fried fish and Pasta & Cheese available. Well, at least it was something different. =)
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| Hmmm.... well, it guess it's REAL fake watches? |
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| Lots of Stairs at Bazaar |
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| Kebab anyone? |
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| Let's strike a Pose!!! |
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| Yummy Yummy! |
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| Ozcelik Hotel's Dinner |
Next Day (Costa Atlantica 8D7N Greek Islands Cruise Embarkation)
Masterpost (Click this to get to day by day link)
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