After that, we needed to get going, so we said our goodbyes. Much thanks to Aly and Martin for looking after us, and Max feels great too with a full fresh water tank, and empty toilet tank!
Not quite as nice of a day though, with mostly cloud cover. Still pleasant enough though, and it never did rain.
Market day!
The potato and onion guy.
The oranges guy.
The lettuce lady.
This is where Max has been parked for the last three nights.
GPS 36.658742, 29.116997
Aly, Martin, and Ruth.
We made a quick stop at the big MMM Migros grocery store and now we are stocked up in case we stay put anywhere for a couple of nights over the next week as we make our way to Antalya.
Then we headed south towards the Pinara ruins site. We decided to avoid the main highway, just for a change of scenery as we had done the main highway in the car last time we were in this area.
The back road was a bit of an adventure.
They look like they are going to widen it at some point.
But the work appears to have been put on hold.
Scenery along the way.
There had been a forest fire through here last year.
Our road up ahead.
We got to the ancient city of Pinara. It's a narrow road leading up there, and they are in the process of installing paving bricks on the whole road. Because of the construction, we couldn't get all the way to the parking area. But Pinara is not a popular site, so there were only two or three other vehicles there.
One of them had licence plates from Russia.
I don't think we've ever seen a Russian licence plate!
The ancient city of Pinara dates back to the Lycian era of about 500BC. As with most of these ancient cities, Pinara was occupied by the Romans around 100 AD. So there are aspects of the site that can be attributed to both the Lycians, and the Romans.
The Lycians are well known for their rock tombs. They were expert rock carvers, and the first thing you see as you approach the site is a huge cliff face pockmarked with rock tombs.
How did they scale these walls to carve the openings?
Zoomed in.
And a bit more.
Amazing.
Ruth, standing on a carved stone base of some kind.
Wow. Amazing.
Me, trying to climb up.
That's as far as I made it. The rocks were a bit slippery.
All carved out of solid rock.
Some inscriptions.
It's all Greek to me.
Wow, again.
There had been a rock slide at some point and this one is only partially exposed.
Exploring.
The rock carving is very accurate. Corners and curves are so exact.
The entire site is open to explore as you wish. No barriers of any kind... oh, and it's totally free. And it's virtually untouched. Very little excavation has ever taken place so everything is very much in a natural state.
Lycian tomb.
Ruth, in the Roman Agora.
Look at how accurately the big stones were cut to fit.
View of the Roman theater and the mountains in the distance.
The Pinara Roman Theater is one of the best unrestored theaters in Turkey.
It was built between 175 and 210 AD.
Roman ruins.
View of the mountains from Pinara.
Lycian tomb.
Ruth at the theater.
We spent two hours wandering around, and could have spent longer. But it was getting late afternoon, so time to call it a day. We found a great overnight spot overlooking the modern day village of Minare...
Max, parked at GPS 36.491237, 29.269395
It was a totally quiet night. The sun is shining brightly again today, and we are headed to the town of Kas to do some hiking on the Lycian Way.
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Nice price drop on this Stanley Camp Cookware Set.
And in Canada...
Good deal on this Stand Up Paddle Board.
Just WOW. Those tombs are amazing.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly were! We can't for the life of us figure out how they carved them out way up high on the cliff.
DeleteThose tombs are amazing. A huge honouring of the dead. Fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThey were amazing, we haven't seen that many together like that before. A lot of work went into carving them all out and how they did it up on the side of the cliff is beyond us.
DeleteJust wow is right! This is yet another of those amazing sites you guys always manage to find where those of us at home can only marvel that it’s totally untouched by the usual selfie-snapping tourists jostling for the best Instagram view & you can wander wherever you want.
ReplyDeleteAmerican readers of this blog may be interested to know that the Lycian League which was seated here at Pinara was a ‘home rule” government under the protectorate of Rome & was (is?) the earliest known form of a federalist system based on republican principles like the US system.
And apparently Pinara’s Lycian League directly inspired the framers of the US Constitution as they were devising their system of governance & was mentioned in the Federalist Papers by both Hamilton & Madison.
Here’s a good archived article from the New York Times in 2005, right after they unearthed the parliament/congress building:
https://archive.ph/20120905123826/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/19/international/europe/19patara.html?_r=1#selection-587.0-587.231
Very cool, thanks for the great photography!!!
We honestly love finding these kinds of places. It is so fun to wander around without the crowds and see sights that most people miss when they are traveling. We could literally have spent hours walking/hiking here and to be able to clamber over the ruins, and duck our heads into all the little cubbyhole unhindered was just great.
DeleteThank you so much for adding in that bit of information regarding the "home rule" and how the US Constitution was inspired by it. We certainly were never aware of that and I am sure the majority of Americans weren't either. Definitely very interesting.
Still enjoying all your exploring that most of us can only dream of.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the history lesson as well.
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
We are glad that you are still following along on our crazy adventures and enjoying our posts and pictures. We are definitely seeing some incredible sights along the way and learning more about the history of the area that we are able to pass along to our readers.
DeleteAmazing to see the tombs yet sad also to see them empty. Why do people raid tombs...especially those who dig up ancient Egyptian mummies. I'm sure thousands of years from now, we wouldn't want our remains dug up. Also my imagination running wild to see so many theaters where wild animals and even people were slaughtered. Felt the same way when I saw the Aztec ruins in Mexico. People were brutal back then (and maybe we still are to a certain extent).
ReplyDeleteIt really is amazing to see all these tombs, especially the pigeon hole ones high up on the cliffs. Unfortunately the looting/raiding of the tombs is not a modern day issue, it was an ancient problem. They have even found tombs that have inscriptions written of the face of the tomb with curses to the offenders to try and ward off potential thieves.
DeleteAs I have mentioned before the ancient theatres were built mostly for plays, dancing and civic gatherings. Some animals and people were killed there but not many, most of those activities happened elsewhere.
What a fascinating area, and the work that went into it all is just astonishing.
ReplyDeleteIt really was, we were totally amazed at the number of rock tombs that we saw, there had to have been hundreds of them all scattered around the area. The Lycians were definitely well known for stone craftsmanship.
DeleteImagine what you might find with a metal detector!
ReplyDeleteLol, we were mentioning that as we were walking through the area. I would expect that that is not allowed though. Kevin is always on the lookout a bag of hidden gold/coins when we wander around many of these ruin sites and if he was going to find that hidden treasure, this would have been one of those places where it would have been more likely to have happened. :-)
DeleteAmazing how much of history is still left in Turkey. In 2012 I did a part of the Lycian Way, I think we started in Kas and then direction Antalya. It was a beautifull hike along the coast and up the mountains with lot's of history. Beautifull area
ReplyDeleteThere is so much history here in Turkey. The country continues to amaze us, definitely lots to see and do when visiting here.
DeleteWe have done many sections of the Lycian Way but nothing more that day hikes. I bet you enjoyed your hike! We think the part around Kaş is probably some of the prettiest, as well as the beginning/ending of the trail in Ölüdeniz, there were fantastic views on that section too.
WOW ! once again not getting your emails , so tis was nice to receive and view. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteWith metta
K~
I am not sure why you aren't getting the email notifications, we haven't heard that from anyone else. I know that there was a problem quite awhile ago but we thought that was all fixed. We are glad that this one came through for you. :-)
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