With three incredible weeks on the road behind us, we didn’t think Turkey could get any better. For our final week though, we risked further car-itation to hire another little runabout, and in one day alone, achieved a trifecta of superb ancient sites.
Basing ourselves in the town of Selçuk, we embarked on a day trip to three ancient sites scattered around the region, starting with Priene, a beautifully situated, impossible-to-imagine-as-it-was ruin on a mountain spur. Back in its heyday in the 4th century BC, Priene was a coastal city, overlooking the sea and a deep water port. Today, the ruins watch over sprawling plains.
When Priene’s port declined due to silt, the focus moved to nearby Miletus, and so we followed suit. This thriving harbour-side city was in its turn silted in, and its remains today are miles from the sea, just a smattering of stones and columns centred on an impressive theatre, a tantalising hint at the city that once was.
The day’s absolute highlight however, was the Temple of Apollo at Didyma. Once the second largest temple in the world, it still inspires awe, with its vast platform, thick, high walls and immense collapsed columns.
After visiting the handful of stones at Ephesus’ Temple of Artemis which, thanks to its extra seven columns, pipped Didyma to become one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, we can’t help but think that, really, if comparing remains, Didyma deserves an honorary transfer of title.
We wrapped up the day at a remote sea-side shack restaurant with no menu, just fresh fish grilled to order, salad and bread – one of the best meals we’ve had this year.
The very best, however, was still to come. Of all the sites we’ve visited in Turkey, this one captured our imagination above them all. Ephesus, with its fine, colonnaded marble streets, its ornate temples and buildings, its excellent theatre, it’s beautiful Library of Celsus, and its extraordinarily well-preserved Terrace Houses, is. simply. epic.
We also met a young cat at the site (we named her Artemis), who took us on an uncanny guided adventure into the ruins, emerging at a spot with wonderful views of the Library of Celsus. And all without hassling us for a tip.
After thousands of miles and a mind-blowing journey through the ancient past of this incredible country, it seemed only fitting that our last experience in Turkey be of a more recent history, and one that holds particular resonance for Australians and Turks – we visited Anzac Cove in Gallipoli.
It’s at once a strikingly beautiful and harsh place, with battlefields and memorials backed by a spectacular vista of rugged terrain, sea and islands. On the day we visited, the whole peninsula seemed to recoil – as we did – from a biting wind and icy rain that only added to the poignancy.
Soon enough we were back in Istanbul, our time was up, and a delightful, beautiful, historic and interesting country was seared into our memory. It’s been a road to ruin, most definitely, but in the best way imaginable for this ancient history buff.
Miss the first part of our Road to ruin journey? Read it here.