The Chimera

Turkey seems to have a lot of rugged mountains that reach right down to the Mediterranean Sea. I like riding in them.

Not many guardrails though, so gotta' be careful in those curves.

One of my friends once said that it looked like I took pictures while riding. Nope. Not me. I am stopped each time I take a picture.

I was going down one steep mountain road when I spotted some wild turkeys. Scientists say that birds are the closest living relatives to the dinosaurs. I think this guy sure looks like a dinosaur.

I am pretty close to Mt. Ararat of Noah and the Ark fame. This mountain isn't it, and I won't be going there. Not enough time to see all of this vast country.

One of the greatest long-distance paths in the world, according to a poll done by USA Today, is the Lycian Way. It is 500 kilometers long. I don't think I much want to walk all that way.

I did want to walk a little of it though. I am headed up to the Chimera.

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Believe it or not, it is almost dark (these digital cameras can sure take shots the old film cameras couldn't). Everyone wants to arrive at the Chimera at night to see the flames in the dark.

I have learned that the ancient Romans and Greeks were great travelers too. They loved to take vacations and to go see things they read about. I can picture them in their togas, going up the Lycian way just like I did to see this burning mountain. They didn't understand why the flames came out of the earth like this, so they made up stories to explain it.

In their myth, there was a creature called the Chimaera. She was a strange looking thing made from the parts of several animals, and she could breathe out flames. The hero named Bellerophon, who liked to ride around on the winged horse Pegasus, speared the monster and forced her down underground where she lies still today, mortally wounded and breathing out fire that escapes through the cracks in the rocks.

I wonder if people back then believed those myths. I bet they did. After all, we have our own myths, legends, and fairy tales today and many people believe them. Repeat something often enough and people will start to think it is true.

Here is a trailside sign showing an analysis they did of some of the gases coming out of the Chaemera.

         

I am a pretty fair chemist, and I think I can tell you  that there are some strange things in this analysis. If you are a scientist, you can probably spot them.

I found a great place to stay for the night. It is run by a Canadian lady from Calgary and her husband, who comes from the funky little village close by the sea here in Turkey. They are very interesting people.

They have built a beautiful resort here where the mountains meet the Mediterranean Sea.

 

 

That pool sure felt good after riding and walking all day. It is very hot here. The temperature reminds me of the hot and humid summertime back home in Illinois.

 

Talk with you later.

Ron

Turkey is Huge

Hi again:

I had not realized just how vast Turkey is. It seems like I have to do a lot of riding to get to the next interesting thing on the agenda. This was not true of Western Europe (France, Germany, Etc.) where the attractions are close together in a much smaller country.

After a long ride down the European side of Turkey, I finally had gone as far as I could go without water wings on Odysseus. So, time to get on a ferry and cross the Hellespont (Dardanelles) to Asiatic Turkey.

Does Odysseus look to you like he enjoys ferry crossings? He has certainly done a bunch of them in his short life.

I knew that the Dardanelles are a fairly narrow strait, but I had no idea that they were this narrow. We were across them before I could finish a coca-cola.

One of the first things I wanted to do on the Asian side of Turkey was to go to ancient Troy. Let me warn you -- there is nothing there except piles of stone. They did have this cool horse model though.

That horse is huge. Were the Trojans really stupid enough to drag something that big into their city? And surely they would have taken a quick look inside. I think Homer made the horse up for his story.

The horse may be modern, but the rest of Troy looks like this today. Gotta' stretch your imagination, boy.

I spent the night in Izmir, which is a huge, spread out place, and from there it was a short hop this morning down to Ephesus. There are a bunch of cheap shops set up just outside Ephesus. They are there to prey on the hoards of tourists that visit the place. I liked this guy's sign. I wonder if it helps, or if it hurts his business.

This was one of the main streets of the city. I can just picture Saint Paul, who lived there three years, walking this road with some of his buddies, going to the church of Ephesus.

I was at Pompeii last year. That place is almost like new, having been buried in volcanic ash for 2,000 years. From being there, I know that on both sides of this road at Ephesus there were shops set up. Ephesus is only about 15% excavated. Kind of makes you wonder what else is there waiting to be found.

The archaeologists are still hard at work in Ephesus. I watched some of them as they carefully used brush and water to clean debris from a house wall.

After they get done cleaning, it is time to work on putting the original "wall paper" of the house together. It is like a jig-saw puzzle.

After the archaeologists get it all back together and up on the wall of the house, it sure looks pretty. I can imagine what the house must have looked like when it was new.

Even the floors of the houses were nice.

Gotta have a souvenir picture of myself a Ephesus. The building behind me was the entrance to the library.

And here, the huge theater. I wonder if Saint Paul ever went to any performances in the three years he lived here. Maybe I need to reread his letters to the Ephesians. He might have left a clue there. Ha.

This is the main street into the city from the harbor. Surely Paul walked up it. He must have sailed to the city. There is a trail across Turkey called the "Saint Paul Trail" but I can't believe he walked it. It is hundreds of miles long.

That street from the harbor must have been something to see at night. They kept it lit up (with torches I assume). It is as smooth as can be. It is paved with huge perfectly flat and perfectly square marble "tiles". Maybe this is where they got the idea that the streets of heaven will be paved with gold.

Saint John wrote his books here, and tradition says he had this house built for Jesus's mother, Mary, and that she lived in it until she died.

                               
For all you animal lovers, here is an Ephesian cat for you. There was a bunch of them around the place, mostly doing what a cat does best: sleeping.

Here is my hotel for the night. Odysseus would probably have liked to stay in Troy, but I guess he will have to be content to spend the night on the street.

It is Ramadan here, and everybody is fasting until sundown. I am not sure how they figure when sundown is, but when it came time, the hotel opened the door to the buffet and the party began. Everyone was sure eager for that food. After the meal, the dancing began.

One guy even did an impromptu fire dance.

It was all a lot of fun, and it went on until midnight. But now, as I type this, it is 8 a.m. and I am ready for breakfast. I have been up and wandering around for hours, but everyone else in this place is still asleep. I think I will try to find out again if they will feed an infidel his morning meal.

Ron