Poppies in the ruins

Aphrodisias is in the back of beyond, encircled by stone mountains.   We were heading there after Pamukkale but were dawdling for no reason other than we were relaxed.  

Spider decor

Our early morning coffee in Denizli came decorated with a spider’s web, delicious all the same.  Denizli has as its motto a rooster, of all things.  We have been seeing statues and live roosters everywhere since we came to this area, then discovered roosters are prized:  and finely and very competitively bred for their crow: the more melodious the better.

Denizli rooster

We are thinking that maybe they might train them to warble a bit, to replace some of the woeful Imam sounds, whose call to prayer is a little less than melodious.  

Our lunch time pide, with salad, cost all of $AUD2.  Not that everything is inexpensive, but some of the foodstuffs are so exceptionally priced it is not worth our while to bother making them.

Yum

And we always enjoy watching it being prepared. It is always fresh from a hot flame to you.   

We only realised it was Easter Sunday when we drove into a traditional rural village, Karahishar, after lunch, to find all the stores were closed, except the çay shops, of course.   The men were holding forth there, as usual, doing what men do most days. 

And, today, even the women were taking time out to sit outside their wee abodes, and dream. 

Resting today

We have seen no Easter eggs in rural Turkey, thus far.  They seem to have successfully resisted the commercial lures that the rest of us fall for.

We came to the ruins of Aphrodisias in the middle of the afternoon.  Like Pergamom and Ephesus, Aphrodisias eventually came under the auspices of the Romans, who set it up early on as a cult site to the love goddess Aphrodite, who it is said, was born of sea foam, and washed ashore on the beach of Cyprus in a seashell.

Aphrodite in heavy garb

A temple to Aphrodite was built here with exquisite Ionic columns and a below ground sanctuary for her cult statue, so special only Priests were able to view it.    Over time as Christianity took hold and the pagan idols were denied, Aphrodite’s temple was converted into a basilica: the columns and stones of the pagan sanctuary recycled for its expansion.   When the Seljuks came and did away with Christianity,  Aphrodisias became little more than a village until, finally, earthquakes put an end to even to that.

A plaque on the basilica wall identifying a rich sponsor
who helped pay for the basilica

Poppies now grow where 15,000 people once lived, worked, loved and prayed.

South Agora had a giant pool that doubled as a
reservoir when earthquakes ruins
the terracotta drainage

Aphrodisias is special for several reasons.  Its stadium is the best kept of its kind in the world.  It is unusually shaped, incorporating the u-features of Hellenistic stadia along with the oval of the Romans,  but it feels really cozy despite being able to accommodate 30,000 people.   

At this end were the blood sports

A quick spray of zero, a cushion or two , and much of the stadium might still be used today.  Though back in the day the favourite entertainment was likely blood sports and combat;  though javelin, discus and running would all have been draw cards here.  Albeit in the nude. A bit chilly for that, though, today. 

The other thing that made Aphrodisias special was the marble.  The mountains around here are heavy  with it.  With marble being so plentiful building material was never a problem.  Right there on the doorstep.

A tourist singing an aria for us in the theatre

They were interesting times.  Because, at the time the Attalids of Pergamom allied with Rome, Pergamom had been the major centre for stonecutting in Asia Minor.  All the great stone artists had been working there. But after the alliance, Pergamom descended into a city of riot and revolt.  Archaeologists and historians now believe that the specialist stonecutters from Pergamom might have moved themselves south to Aphrodisias, and set up a fine stone school there: teaching apprentices the art of sculpting and covering the place with their craftsmanship.  

Fine detail 

You cannot walk an inch in Aphrodisias without finding a fallen statue, a garlanded frieze, or the decorative base of an urn.  The apprentices and masters were busy. Stone is thick on the ground.   At one place on the site a collection of garlanded friezes has been stacked,  and these make a gorgeous  wall, and that is only the smallest portion of them.

Garland practise for the apprentice stonecutters

Sarcophogi and other beautifully carved stone pieces from Aphrodisias have been found all over the Greek and Roman world.    One of the reasons for this is that caravans of travelling salesmen would head off from these mountains with sarcophagi loaded on their camels.  All fully decorated, except for the heads, which were simply blocked and featureless.   Once sold, the salesmen-cutter would quickly chip away at the head to create the personal details for the buyer.  Made to order, so to speak.

Imagine this on a camel's back

Aphrodisias, too, is the home of a rare Sebastion: a temple to the Roman Emperors as gods, which has a processional route  porticoed at the sides rising three floors high exquisitely decorated with some of the most glorious friezes we’ve seen on any site: Greek myths on the second level, and Roman tales on the third.   Their condition is simply amazing.  The majority of the frieze panels have been picked out of the earth from where they fell after the many quakes.  These are two thousand years old and some of them look as if they were completed only yesterday.  

Another lovely site, Aphrodisia.   Each one is so different and so interesting.  

Beauful Sebastion

oooOOOooo