All through the summer I recommend the delights of trips to the ancient cities of Tlos, Xanthos and Cadianda, the gorge at Saklıkent (‘hidden city’), the 18km of sandy beach at Patara and other local delights but it’s nice when I actually manage to grab a day off and go there myself!
Yesterday I decided to have a day out. Emre didn’t want to come (far too cool to hang out with mum now…and has the perfect excuse of being needed more when I am not in the hotel), so it was just Kaan and I. We went to the gorge first. The restaurant in the gorge has been removed since the last time I was there – much better to have all the commercial stuff outside and leave the place itself in its natural state. The fast-flowing water is icy cold – even at this time of year – and wading across the deepest bit (deep enough to wet my shorts) actually hurts my legs. After that, it’s splashing through ankle-deep water for a while but we walked a kilometre or so this time, going through places where the two sides are nearly touching overhead. The limestone sides are polished smooth by the water and Kaan found lots of little caves to climb into. The gorge supposedly goes back 18km into the mountains, but you would need to be a climber (or a mountain goat) to see the further reaches of it.
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| see how small people are in the bottom! |
After returning to the start point, we decided to try the ‘rafting’ that they have been doing there for the last 5 years of so. Rafting is a little misleading as you are in an inflatable ‘ringo’ and though they give you a paddle and instruct you to paddle left if you want to go right – and vice versa – actually you tend to just go round and round whichever way you paddle!
It was fun, but actually more ‘rapid’ than I had expected. They send a guide with you, and though he was a young boy, I was glad to have him along. The biggest thing to be careful of is the large rocks in the shallows, on which it would be very easy to bump your backside. To avoid this, the guide spends a large part of his time yelling ‘lift your bum’ – which we learned to do pretty fast! The water, even further down, is still pretty cold and by the end of the trip (which takes about half an hour), with the cold and bumping, I had lost all feeling in my bum!
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| tomb at Xanthos (with theatre behind) |
We then drove on to Xanthos. This was the largest city of the Lycian Federation, a place with a history going back to at least the eighth century BC. Perched up on the hill-side, with a good view of the surrounding area, you might imagine that it was safe from invaders; in fact twice during its troubled past, the residents chose mass suicide over surrender, once to the Persians and once to Roman Emperor Brutus who attacked with his army when the locals were failing to pay his taxes!
There are archeologists at work on the site at the moment – a combination of French and Turkish I believe. Xanthos has also been made a World Heritage Site (along with nearby Letoon) which must add to its profile in the world of archeology. There are some great mosaics there, which they have mostly covered over for protection, though you get a peak at parts of it….
I am sure they will discover many more pieces and I am looking forward to hearing more about the history of this ancient city. Actually, I could quite fancy doing a bit of digging myself if I had the time, though I’m not sure I have the patience needed to brush away the layers of dirt with a little paint brush!
