Türkiye- Southern Coast-Antalya, Kas, Fethiye, Pamukkale, Kusadasi

I left Istanbul and flew south to Antalya where I rented a car. I planned to make a road trip throughout the southern coast of the country and what a road trip it was! The shear number of ancient city ruins in this country is astounding. But they are being carefully unearthed and restored. I could imagine how life was just from roaming through the ruins. My first night I just hung out on the boardwalk in old town.

Old Town Antalya waterfront, Clock tower, ocean and check out the old water fountain (Bottom right).

The next day I went to Perge, an ancient city. Think Alexander the great...the pictures don't accurately depict these ruins. How well it's preserved...you can almost imagine how they lived their lives thousands of years ago!

 It's amazing that that beautiful marble is still around...picture on the bottom left is how water reached the town.

Shops on the western road. Now off to the next city, Aspendos.

Mixture of"town hall, bridges, theatre, aquaduct

Bridge and river. It's amazing how well preserved these structures are. Thousands of years old. Then I went back to enjoy the beach. Tomorrow, more of the Antalya area.

Hadrian's Gate below

Went to Upper Duden waterfall, Lower waterfall and Antalya Museum. They had more artifacts from the city I visited yesterday, Perga(Perge).

Top row is how they buried people 8,000 years ago. In clay pots in the fetal position. Below that, artifacts from the bronze age. And other artifacts.

This ends my time in Antalya. My next stop is Kas.

These are from my drive to Kas as well as the cute little town. Only here for a couple days, then off to Fethiye. Below are pics from my drive from Kas to Fethiye. Look at the covered seating and covered picnic tables. People just pull over and have lunch/picnic, hang out and then continue on their journey. Pretty cool. I saw people later-it was pretty early when I left. Things don't seem to get started here until around noon or later...

My final stop before Fethiye was Amyntas Rock Tombs.

Made it to the resort. It's now November and the slow season. It's like I have my own private resort with a swimup room. I spent the afternoon out there, so relaxing!

The beach and park. Off to my next stop. I had to drive inland to get to my next destination, Pamukkale. Beautiful countryside!

Then I got to my destination. UNESCO World Heritage Site, Hierapolis. This was a roman city that was destroyed by an earthquake 2000 years ago. Then they tried to rebuild the city using materials from the previous city, then it was destroyed again and then finally abandoned in 1690. Now it's the ruins that they are trying to restore. It's a lot bigger than I would have thought. I was there for 4 hours and I still didn't get through the whole city. For those of you in CA, think the size of Claremont. On FOOT! I don't know when they started using horses for regular transport. But you could still see the travertine tile roads and sidewalks.

It's so disappointing that most of the water has dried up. This has been a popular tourist destination for the past 2000 years! It looks like ash and you can see where they used to be semi circles full of water. If you google it, you can see how it USED to look.

WHAT exactly is that boy doing???

Made it to Kusadasi. View from my room.

Kusadasi waterfront.

Typical tourist trap...But the island in the distance is Greece(sixth one from the top on the right). So close!

The next day I spent the day exploring Ephesius with a private tour guide. Even more history here. I'm going to make that a separate post.