Travel Journal

2002-10-31

Sick

Early in the day, we stopped off at the tent of some nomads, where we spoke with Fatma and her daughter, Canan (pronounced Janan). When asked about the advantages of a nomadic life, Fatma said that she'd never been sick a day in her life, and that the air and water are much cleaner as a nomad than they are in a village. She also wouldn't like the crowding. Fatma delivered all 5 of her children by herself (no attendants) -- with one of the kids, she got up during dinner, went to the next tent, delivered the child, came back to the main tent, and resumed eating dinner! We also asked about the wedding customs, and found that they have a 3-day wedding tradition. On Friday, the families exchange gifts; on Saturday, animals are sacrificed and there is a big dinner for everyone in the community, and on Sunday, the actual wedding ceremony takes place. Before the wedding night, the woman is expected to 'beat' her new husband in order to give him his first lesson in married life.

After the nomad visit, I spent the rest of the day either on the bus or in the hotel sleeping; John visited a farmer's market, had a picnic by a beautiful lake, and visited the ruins and calcium springs at Pamukkale.

I'm feeling much better today, though, and I'm looking forward to seeing Aphrodisias!"

Nomadic family

On the Road

Hierapolis

Pamukkale

Aphrodisias

Aphrodisias was neat -- unlike someplace like Pompeii, which was frozen at one particular moment in time, Aphrodisias started out as a Greek city, became a Roman city, and lasted long enough to have its temple to Aphrodite converted to a Christian church. Aphrodisias was an artists' community which owed its location to the extensive nearby marble quarries. In addition to many fine statues in the on-site museum, the easy availability of marble is also obvious in the 30,000 seat stadium -- ostentatious for a city of only 7,500!

The stadium and the theater are both quite well-preserved, while most of the other structures are less recognizable. Lale explained that one of the reasons why roman structures tend to fall down over time is because the individual stone blocks making up, say, a column, are actually fastened together inside with soft metal, such as bronze or lead. Holes are hollowed out of the facing parts of both pieces, and a metal piece (like a post) is fitted into the holes in the bottom piece before the top piece is lowered down onto it. Narrow channels are left leading to the outside of the stone, and additional metal is poured in to completely fill the holes. This would be all well and good, but if there is a fire, the metal will melt and run out, destabilizing the structure, which means that if there is an earthquake later (as is likely to happen), the structure will fall. The metal can also be removed by people later on who need the bronze to make coins, with the same effect on the stability of the structure.

One of the other interesting things about Aphrodisias is that one archaeologist is primarily responsible for the excavations there. From 1961 to 1990, professor Kenan Erim from New York University led the excavations there, and raised huge sums of money for the work, as well as spending his own fortune on the excavations. After his death in 1990, he was actually buried on the site, so his grave is visible near the Temple of Aphrodite! The society he founded, the "Friends of Aphrodisias" continues to raise money and fund the ongoing excavations there.

After we finished at Aphrodisias, we headed to a nearby restaurant for a lunch of Pide (Turkish Pizza). There was a fellow there with his dancing bird (some sort of parrot-like creature), which he encouraged to jump up and down on people's heads!

As we were driving to Kusadasi, Lale informed us that the ferry to Samos had been cancelled for Saturday. So John and I decided to stay until Sunday. After we arrived at the hotel, more bad news: the Samos ferry wouldn't run on Sunday either, so our first opportunity to get there would be Monday. We decided that was too uncertain for us, so we joined a group headed to the travel agency and booked a flight to Athens for Sunday. We'll be staying Saturday night in Izmir (formerly Smyrna), which sounds like it has interesting museums and a lousy tourist infrastructure."

Aphrodisias

Kusadasi