This trip was in three parts: an organised group tour with Amber Travel to do the western section of the Lycian way; then 4 days on our own in Cappodocia; and then 4 days on our own in Istanbul.
Lycian Way
The Lycian way is one of the top ten treks in the world for the spectacular scenery.
The western section is much more rugged than the eastern section. We met at Fethiye on the Aegean coast and trekked to Kas over 8 days staying at hotels and lodges with van support.
Just above the town after the climb out of Fethiye you go past the remains of the ancient crusader castle of the Knights of St John and then the ancient Greek rock hewn Amyntas tomb.
The trek soon joins the ancient cobbled road to Kayakoy
Kayaköy is an abandoned “ghost town” with a somewhat tragic history.
After the First World War, because Turkey and Greece were on opposite sides, in 1923-24 there was an ‘exchange of minorities’ where Greeks living in Turkey were exchanged with Turks living in Greece. However, there were many more Greeks than Turks so the exchange was uneven. This meant that about 6,000 Greeks, who had been living in Kayaköy for centuries, were uprooted to a completely alien environment where they had to start their lives again from scratch.
Kayaköy is now an open-air museum.
Day 3 of the trek took us to a magnificent view of Oludeniz lagoon.
Day 4 was a fairly tough 11km day with lots of climbing and uneven ground. At a certain point we crossed this seemingly impassable valley.
On a clear day sometimes even the island of Rhodes is visible.
We saw several of these tortoises on the path.
We saw a few of these rare bee orchids. The flower is in the shape of a bee in order to attract other bees.
We stayed in this simple trekkers lodge in the village of Gey.
The next day took us down a steep but very lush valley complete with the striking red skinned Arbutus trees.
We stopped at this inn for lunch where they made us ‘Gozleme’ turkish pancakes.
We proceeded to the ancient site of Sidyma, sharing space with the village of Dodurga, which had many of these ruins of old tombs.
This ancient millstone was how they ground wheat. A bar sticking out of the other side of the millstone was tied to a donkey who went round in a circle.
Patara
Later on the same day we visited the ancient city of Patara, the metropolis of Lycia. Many of the buildings were well preserved by virtue of being under the sand dunes. The city was eventually abandoned because silt from the nearby river was brought down by the tide and blocked up the harbour.
Steve (one of our group) did this sketch of the entrance gate
The next day we visited the fascinating Roman engineering masterpiece of Delikkemer aqueduct, a reverse syphon system.
Cappadocia
We stayed for 4 nights at Goreme which is an hours taxi drive from Cappadocia airport.
Selime
The Cathedral-sized church in Selime Monastery contains these columns and arches cut directly from the underground tuff rock. Unfortunately, the frescoes are barely visible under years of soot from when the Turks used the room for cooking.
Derinkuyu
We explored the underground city of Derinkuyu. This is one of 37 such cities discovered in the region, thought to have housed up to 5,000 inhabitants across seven levels. These cities were built by the Hittites and were first mentioned by the Greek historian Xenophon in the 4th century BCE.
Only the top two levels are open to the public, and the visit is a very claustrophobic experience. It’s difficult to imagine people living down there, hiding from attackers for three weeks in total seclusion! They had wells, kitchens, and ventilation shafts, all carved out of solid rock. Some doorways could be blocked by huge stone discs, with holes in the middle used for looking out and firing arrows at attackers.
Goreme open air museum
Cavusin
Istanbul
Topkapi Palace
The sultan lead a sequestered lifestyle and he and his family rarely left the palace grounds. The sultan would not even meet visitors, as this would be done by the grand vizier, who would then brief the sultan afterwards in a seperate part of the court. During its heyday, royal wives and children, concubines, eunuchs, and servants were among the 4000 people living within Topkapi’s walls.
Up until 1603, the Ottoman Sultans avoided the problem of succession by the ingenious practice of fratricide, which means just simply killing off all of your rival prince brothers. In England, by contrast, we had the tedious war of the roses which was a succession struggle between the houses of Lancaster and York.
The practice of fratricide was perfectly legal and meant that as soon as the sultan died, the princes were plunged into a race for the throne – each motivated by the knowledge that, if he lost, whichever of his brothers won would probably eliminate him. Of course, the crown prince could never shed the blood of his brothers, so he had them strangled instead. When Mehmed III was crowned, he called his nineteen brothers into the throne room. They had nothing to fear, he told them, for he had only brought them there to be circumcised. In the next room, the assassins were waiting. One by one, the princes trouped in. One by one, they were throttled with a silken bowstring. The youngest was only eleven. Finally Mehmed had the assassins in turn strangled – although this time not with a silk bowstring but just an ordinary one.
After the death of Mehmed III, in 1603, the Ottoman rulers shifted from fratricide to confinement. Perhaps this is because Mehmed’s slaughter of his nineteen brothers had crossed a line, or perhaps it was because his successor, Ahmed, was only thirteen, too young to have any heirs of his own. In the Harem, you can see the high windows of the confinement room, which was called Kafes, and it was a sort of gilded prison where the princes were confined to from the aged of seven. Because they were locked away for life it meant that the ruler could feel safe that his potential rivals could never gather followers, incite rebellion, or lead a coup.
Basilica Cistern
The underground Basilica Cistern was designed to service the Great Palace and surrounding buildings and was built in 832. It was able to store 80,000 cu meters of water delivered via 20km of aqueducts from a reservoir near the Black Sea.
Blue Mosque
The Blue Mosque was the grand project of Sultan Ahmet I who set out to build a monument that would rival the nearby Aya Sofia. It was constructed between 1606 and 1616, more than 1000 years after Aya Sofia.
Aya Sofia
Grand Bazaar
Suleymaniye Mosque
See this video of the interior of Suleymaniye mosque
Archaeological Museum
Chariot racing at the hippodrome arena (alongside Sultanahmet Park) was the favourite spectator sport of the Byzantine empire for 1000 years. Support for one of the rival teams was akin to membership of a political party and the hippodrome was where uprisings and protests would occur if things were going badly in the empire.
In AD 532 tens of thousands were massacred in the hippodrome by the imperial forces for daring to protest against Justinians high tax regime.
