We had a good bus ride from Avanos to Antayla and the bikes arrived safely this time. Antayla is situated on the Mediterranean Sea and was very busy with European tourists on summer holidays. We stayed in the old part of the city, once surrounded by a wall but very little remains of it. Emperor Hadrian visited the city here in 130AD and an arch was built in his honour and most of it still stands, now known as Hadrian’s Gate. In our hotel we met a young couple from Mt Isa, Ben and Lauren, who threw in their jobs and are now travelling. They were going to see the ruins we were planning to see and invited us to join them in their hire car and of course we accepted. The first ruins we visited were at Perge. We had visited the museum the day before and had seen the many statues that had been unearthed here so we tried to imagine them standing here before the city had become the ruins that it is today. The colonnaded streets are discernible and the remains of a nymphaeum stand at the end of the street. Built in the second century St Paul visited here on his missionary journeys. Next we went to visit Aspendos to see the theatre heralded as the best surviving example of theatres built by the Romans. It is dated as 160 AD. The seating is still intact and we sat on the seats just like thousands of others have done before us over 2000 years. It was possible to explore some of the tunnels which lead to the theatre and we wondered how many gladiators had walked those tunnels to the arena. The theatre is still used today for special performances, unfortunately none were occurring while we were there. The third cite was at Side, where ruins of an old city were right next to the ocean. The ruins here were widely scattered and not much restoration had been done .
About Me
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
The Mediterranean Coast and Antayla
We had a good bus ride from Avanos to Antayla and the bikes arrived safely this time. Antayla is situated on the Mediterranean Sea and was very busy with European tourists on summer holidays. We stayed in the old part of the city, once surrounded by a wall but very little remains of it. Emperor Hadrian visited the city here in 130AD and an arch was built in his honour and most of it still stands, now known as Hadrian’s Gate. In our hotel we met a young couple from Mt Isa, Ben and Lauren, who threw in their jobs and are now travelling. They were going to see the ruins we were planning to see and invited us to join them in their hire car and of course we accepted. The first ruins we visited were at Perge. We had visited the museum the day before and had seen the many statues that had been unearthed here so we tried to imagine them standing here before the city had become the ruins that it is today. The colonnaded streets are discernible and the remains of a nymphaeum stand at the end of the street. Built in the second century St Paul visited here on his missionary journeys. Next we went to visit Aspendos to see the theatre heralded as the best surviving example of theatres built by the Romans. It is dated as 160 AD. The seating is still intact and we sat on the seats just like thousands of others have done before us over 2000 years. It was possible to explore some of the tunnels which lead to the theatre and we wondered how many gladiators had walked those tunnels to the arena. The theatre is still used today for special performances, unfortunately none were occurring while we were there. The third cite was at Side, where ruins of an old city were right next to the ocean. The ruins here were widely scattered and not much restoration had been done .
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