Anatolia, Turkey, Asia Minor

Gulet: From Halicarnassus to Ephesus

We boarded our Gulet, the Artemesia in the seaside town of Bodrum. Artemesia is an 85-foot Gulet or sailing ship. The cast of characters for our trip through the Aegaen included the Captain, first and second mate, the Cook, and two excellent guides, an archeologist named Heinrich and Turkish guide named Osman. My Mother and Father, who had arranged and planned this leg of the journey (thanks Mom and Dad!) and youngest brother Todd, rounded out the group of explorers.

Halicarnassus

The present day city of Bodrum used to be, in ancient times, a city called Halicarnassus, and the location of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. King Mausolus built the great funerary monument to himself here, the Mausoleum. All that remains today is the hole in the ground where it once stood, virtually all of the stone recycled into the crusade era fortifications built around the harbor on castle rock. Halicarnassus is also famous for being the birthplace of Herodotus, the great historian of ancient times, and the father of "history" as we know it. We visited the Maritine museum and had a guided tour of one of the best-preserved shipwrecks of ancient times by one of the divers who worked on the excavation. We spent the night onboard Artemesia, listening to the nightlife in Bodrum (which means that sleep was few and far between, but who could complain).

Myndos

We cruised up the Turkish coastline to the town of Myndos, a small beach and harbor town. In Myndos we got to explore an ancient city and harbor center, were there has been no excavation or archeology. It is fascinating to see what an archeological sight look like before any work has been done. Ani found the remains of a Rhodian Amphora sitting in the middle of a pasture, and indeed there seemed to be pottery shards and artifacts lying all over the place. This was such an amazing feeling knowing that we were truly “walking” on history and picking it up! (and putting it back where we found it of course)

Iasos

After Myndos we cruised to the small harbor of Iasos. From the boat we hiked up a nearby hill to visit the ruins of Iasos. The first view of Iasos is that of a fortress but once we started exploring the site we were able to see ruins left by the Greeks and Romans, even earlier civilizations, such as temples, a theater built in the hillside as well as beautiful, well-preserved, mosaics.

Labranda

After the ruins in Iasos we drove up into the mountains to the site of Labranda where we saw the oracular shrine to Zeus Labrandus, built by Mausolus. Set way up in the mountains we were able to see the varying landscape of Turkey: pine trees, olive trees, pomegranate trees, wild berries, grapes along with a variety of critters including large lizards and bees. Roan purchased honey from the locals, the honey was from bees that pollinated the tree blossoms mostly. Then we stopped at the Temple of Zeus at Euromos.

Miletus, and the temple to Apolo at Didyma

The theater at Miletus is awe-inspiring. This enormous structure could hold around 25 to 30 thousand peoples. The large “Vomitoriums” or exit hallways were cavernous, and it is said that the entire theater could be emptied in about 30 minutes. The structure is so large that much later in history, the crusaders built a castle on top of the theater. Equally as impressive is the temple to Apollo at Didyma. This structure could easily fit the Parthenon in Athens inside its courtyard. Both the city of Miletus and the city of Priene suffered a similar fate. They used to be across a large bay from one and other, on the Aegean Sea. This bay was also the mouth of the Meander River (from where we derive the term “Meander”) the entire bay was gradually silted in by the river, turning in to a large alluvial plane, very hard to sail a ship through!

Priene

Priene is a very well preserved Greek city on a hillside that used to overlook a large bay. The bay gradually silted in by the Meander River, causing this city to loose much of their populations and importance. We explored some very well preserved structures in Priene, and had a great picnic lunch in the ruins of a temple.

Ephesus, and the temple of Atriums at Ephesus

Ephesus is one of the best-preserved Greco-Roman cities in the world. Some of the highlights were the Library of Celsius, The hillside private residences, and of course the public toilets. The main processional street went through several large Agoras and past many fountain houses. There was a large theater, several bathhouses and Gymnasiums and stoas. The road eventually led to the temple of Atriums at Ephesus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. All that is left now is a single column and some of the foundation. Almost the entire temple was recycled into later structures, mostly the basilica of St. Paul.

We left the Artemisia, out trusty ship, early this morning. We said our goodbyes to our incredible caption and crew, and our two guides who made this leg of our journey one that none of us will ever forget. We feel that we have made some new friends, which we will have for a lifetime. Next, on to Istanbul…….