Fortunately, we had blue sky and sunshine, with a high of about 13C (55F).
Tarsus is very flat, but there is one "mound" which is a bit of a hill. It's the high point of the whole area, but it still doesn't afford much of a view. There has been some archeological exploration up there, but nothing going on right now. This is where they say the city was first settled 9,000 years ago.
The Tarsus Stream.
View from the hill.
Whatever archeological work they have done is covered.
There is a small park on the hill.
The Historical Bazaar dates back to 1579.
It's fairly new compared to most of the area!
St. Paul's Church was built in 1862.
It costs to go inside, but we weren't that interested.
Ruth, at Cleopatra's Gate.
Cleopatra's Gate was built around 41 BC.
The old market area.
As we were walking, a guy sitting spoke out to us "hey, where are you from?" Of course we stand out like a sore thumb, and there aren't many tourists around. His English was really good and he was interesting to talk to. Apparently most of the tourists they get here are from Russia. They don't get any Canadians. I did ask him about the increased police presence here. He said that Turkiye has accepted over 5 million refugees from Syria and most of them have remained close to the Syria border and it's related to them. He said it's not really that bad, but the young people (even the children) can be troublemakers. He warned us to make sure that we park where there are cameras and lots of people.
The Grand Mosque of Tarsus. Built in 1579.
Visitors are allowed in between prayer times.
The courtyard of the Grand Mosque.On our way back to Max, we came across a covered ruins. We thought maybe it cost to go inside, but it was free because it leads to a modern day mosque. Apparently they were doing some renovations to the mosque a few years ago, and dug down to find an old bridge that went over where a river used to flow. They excavated further and found more stuff, but wanted to keep the original mosque so they covered the whole thing and put in viewing platforms.
Remains of a Roman bridge under the modern mosque.
And, a more modern ruins.
This building is almost right beside where Max is parked. We thought is was an abandoned office building of some kind, but I looked it up and it used to be the only 4 star hotel in Tarsus. It was built in 1996, and abandoned in 2014. I can't find any info about why, but I did find an article from 2018 that said it was now rat infested and mouldy and the property is owned by the municipal government. Strange!
Today, the sun is shining again and we are moving on to the big city of Adana (pop 1.7 million). We are just about done with cities, but there are things that we want to see there.
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And in Canada...
“Hey, where are you from?” made me chuckle. That’s something we would say in the USA. You meet nice people everywhere!
ReplyDeleteWe find that when Turkish people see foreign tourists they are always curious at to where they are from. They definitely don't get many Canadians in this part of Türkiye, it isn't a city that is on the tourist route. And yes, you are right we meet nice people everywhere. :-)
DeleteAncient cities like Perge and Termessos lie in ruins, but coastal ones such as Tarsus and Antalya are in better positions and are continually added too and remain used. 9000 years for Tarsus, that's impressive.
ReplyDeleteIn Tarsus, it is more the Ottoman buildings that have survived, most of the buildings from the older civilizations are just the foundations. Perhaps the cities by the sea were better kept because they were strategic locations to fight off invaders.
DeleteYep, 9,000 years is a very long time to stay inhabited, so many cities are turned to ruins at some point in time and then abandoned.