Dark side of beauty

We rode the historic ‘nostalgic’ tram from the archeological museum into Antalya.  These old trams came from Hamburg, we heard, so are well recycled and effective, taking folk right through the main tourist areas of Antalya, and back.

Recycled effective trams

The old and new city spreads around a gorgeous horseshoe bay with turquoise beaches below, and well kept green parks above.  A more delightful spot on the southern Mediterranean coast for rest and relaxation it would be hard to find.  And a lot of people seem to know this, as, amazingly, it is the third most visited city in the world, given its international arrival’s numbers, just behind Paris and London in its stats, and it has even been creeping up on them for the last few years, too.  Not surprising given the number of English and German folk who own apartments, or second homes, along Antalya’s coasts, too, and visit these several times each year.  

Antalya’s old quarter, the Kaleiçi, is tucked behind the remnants of decayed city walls, the oldest remains in the city.  One route into the ancient city is via Hadrian’s Gate, the very beautiful marble arches through which Hadrian himself rode; as did the Queen of Sheba, it is said, on her way to visit King Solomon.  We walked in their footsteps, and, literally, felt the shivers.   

Old quarter, the Kaleiçi

The Kaleiçi is all narrow streets, ancient mosques, delicate minarets and blocky towers, with lovely old traditional Ottoman houses converted into shops, pansiyons, and boutique hotels with courtyards so charmingly arrayed they are hard to pass without a photo stop.

Charming narrow streets

Here, we visited an ethnographic museum that gave us an insight into how wealthy Antalyans lived a century or two ago.  Ottoman houses had their functional activities on the ground floor: the kitchen, oven and bathroom were below, along with the stable and shed for straw.  The cellar and pantry were often a little higher, on an intervening level; while the upper level was the typical living area, where rooms of a good size were set around an entry called a sofa.

Upper levels overhanging courtyard

Rooms were multi-purpose and any of them could be used as a dining, living or bedroom: each with low set divans around the walls useful for entertaining, or for storage.  Bed coverlets were stored, along with sofa covers, rugs and cushions; and there were shelves for glassware and pottery.

Multi-use rooms

Their courtyard floors were often decorated with stones arrayed in beautiful and decorative patterns;  then watered regularly, to keep the stones chilled, and the home cool.   

Stones arrayed and water chilled for cooling

Many of the courtyard still had pretty wells.  Some of them in carved marble and stone: works of art in their own right.  

Carved marble walls 

A wizened old man invited us inside a traditional Ottoman hamam, or Turkish bath, for a peek.  It featured ancient wooden cabines for changing before you headed off for a spell in the steam room, followed by the peeling, lathering and massage routines.

Traditional cabines 

Artisan spice sellers set up stalls of chilli, peppers and paprika — the flavours of Turkey — into decorative spice pyramids with just a quick flick of the wrist using a flat trowel.  All very enticing.    

Spices pyramids, the colour of Turkey

And there were shoe shine men up and down the alleys with golden accoutrements: so different: so eastern.  All of which makes it all feel so very exotic.  

Shoeshine equipment decked in gold

We passed the old Korkut mosque which sits atop the ruins of an ancient basilica: its stone lintel and windows exquisite still, even in ruins.    

Decorative lintel of old mosque

Then walked through the peaceful Karaalıoğlu Park with its attractive sculptures and blue Mediterranean views. 

Elegant statue guarding the Mediterranean

We found our way back to where the new town meets the old; where decorated horses patiently stand ready to carry tourists wherever they want to go.

Decked out for tourists

Which was just as well, as the trams are not running this afternoon.  

It is May Day, and in remembrance of the massacre at Taksim Square in 1977, left wing political groups have gathered in their thousands, blocking the roads, bearing banners, and shouting protests.

Protesting the tragedy

The Jandarma, again, are in disarray.  They seem to have few coping skills for solving such problems, and in the main, just let the crowd do its own thing, while the traffic all over this part of town comes to a complete standstill.  

The crowd controlling their own protest

We walk in the thick of it, attempting to head back to the Archeological Museum, where we spend the remainder of the afternoon admiring the astonishing pieces there.  

Ancient Roman bust

These are mainly Roman remains from the ancient site of Perge, just up the road —  busts, statues, tombs, columns and steles, mostly from the 2nd and 3rd century.  So many pieces, that if put together again, they would likely make a nearly complete Roman city.  Perge must have been as stunning as Ephesus in its day.    

This sarcophagus was stolen from Perge.
Its bits were found in Istanbul

We are enchanted by the ethnographic section in the museum and spend much time there.  There is and Ottoman display with an  Ottoman nomadic tent set up, to show how nomadic shepherds lived.  And as some still do, even today, further east from here; but seasonally, now, I believe.    But, we have to give the eastern parts of Turkey a miss this time as there has been trouble brewing along the border with Syria and we have been advised it is not wise.

Nomadic tent 

So, north and inland we will head, and leave our lovely coastal Lycian kingdoms behind.

These stele are Lycian.  Minimalist.  Gorgeous.  

ooo000ooo

Though, as at Kaş, it is not all paradise on this Antalya coast.    We camped close to Side, another major Roman site with great ruins, which has, in recent years, been turned into a travesty of its former self in order to attract foreign holiday makers and investors.  

And it is not just Side.  Much of the Mediterranean coast of Turkey has similarly suffered.  

Over the last ten years package holiday hotels and apartments for the Germans, Dutch, and British  have sprung up like jumping beans.  As fast as one hotel is freshly completed, last years’ older model is abandoned, no longer sought after, and ready to become rubble.  This year’s newer Disneyland-themed model often sits beside fields still scarred with the rubble and steel from its construction: barely complete.    The roads around these sites — labelled especially as tourist sites — ugh! — are dusty, ugly, and chock full of tourists, walking the street frontages lined with merchants in their makeshift market stalls selling Geniune Fake watches and designer labelled gear.

A la Disneyland 

Entire shopping centres, too, have been constructed with nary a sign in Turkish.  Shops label their goods and trade in Euro.  Store signs are either in English or German.  

Shop signs in German

One thing for certain, in two thousand years time, it is hardly likely that archeologists are going to bother lifting a single stone to see what remains lie beneath.

It is dire. 

Even the boats are Disney themed

ooo000ooo