Turkish Delight

willis — Wed, 24 May 2017 18:37:24 +0000

Side Ruins

Side is located around 70Km West of Antalya on the Turkish Mediterranean coast and at first glance looks like most other coastal tourist towns; long beach’s strewn with sunbathers watching the sailing, windsurfing and powerboat rides all sitting beside a collection of hotels, bars, restaurants and shops selling all manner of holidaymaker ‘tat’ (and some really nice stuff, you just need to search). But as you start wondering around the town you’ll start seeing chunks of ancient architecture, white marble columns originally from the Hellenistic Temple of Apollo, some still standing others lying down, huge stone lintels with deep carvings, mosaic pavements and ruined buildings.

It turns out that Side is essentially a giant open air museum, with bits of history at every turn, and we’re not talking about an old building that’s now a fast food takeaway, but rather streets of ‘ruins’ bringing the past to life. There is an area that has been dedicated as an open air museum with information boards etc. so you can better understand what you’re seeing, but then you round a corner and come face to face with the piece de resistance, a 2^nd century theatre that seated up to 15,000 people.

As there was no convenient hill to build the theatre against, as would be the norm, the builders created a grand, vaulted structure, more reminiscent of the Roman style, and this is one of the finest examples in the Mediterranean area. More information on the Side ruins can be found here

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Cappadocia, is this where the Flintstones came from?

willis — Tue, 16 May 2017 21:07:20 +0000

Most visitors to Turkey think of beaches, sun and good food, but take a trip into the heartland and a new experience awaits.

Cappadocia is a unique landscape of tall cone shaped formations of rock know as fairy chimneys, initially created by the forces of nature, but most recently altered by man. When I say most recently I actually mean since around 3000 BC. The early settlers in the region found that they could carve the soft rock into man made caves and they set to it with gusto.

Cappadocia underground city

There are single homes carved into individual towers, valleys with whole towns and even underground cities. The reasons for living in this way are varied, the most obvious is simply shelter, but in the case of the underground cities it was protection. The city at Derinkuyu was built by the Christians living in the area during the Byzantine era, as protection from Muslim Arabs, and could house up to 20,000 people plus their animals. There’s ventilation, water and waste management and churches all carved into the soft rock.

Cappadocia underground passage

Cappadocia fairy chimney home

Cappadocia fairy cave home

Göreme Open-Air Museum

The only way to understand the enormity of the project is to see it for yourself, and the best way to do that is to take an organised tour, and be sure to take a balloon ride to get the best view of the region.

An early morning balloon ride is well worth the trouble of getting up before the sun. The peace and tranquillity just floating over this unique landscape will give you lasting memories.

Balloon ride Cappadocia

The Cappadocia area is also know for the ‘Whirling Dervishes’

These Sufi Muslims perform a spinning dance to allow them to reach religious ecstasy, it’ll make you giddy just watching!

Whirling Dervishes

You can find out more about these religious ceremonies here

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Turkey Archives - Sandals N Socks

Turkish Delight

Cappadocia, is this where the Flintstones came from?

Most visitors to Turkey think of beaches, sun and good food, but take a trip into the heartland and a new experience awaits.

The Cappadocia area is also know for the ‘Whirling Dervishes’