Mediterranean Trip - Part 4 (Nov. 30) - The Final Episode

For more photos, see: http://www.anatolianphotos.shutterfly.com/ "Mediterranean Trip - Part 4"

Xanthos

We arrived at the site of this ancient city’s ruins early in the morning of the last day of our Mediterranean adventure. We got an earlier than normal start (8:00 a.m.) because by 11:00 a.m. or so, we needed to head back to Ankara. We were scheduled to arrive in Ankara at 11:30 p.m. What is normally a nine-hour bus ride was promising to be longer, as thousands of others were likewise returning to the city from their long Bayram weekend.

By some accounts, Xanthos is considered the capital city of the Lycian League. But most reports I’ve looked at say Patara was the capital city. Whatever it was, Xanthos was a very large and prosperous city that had a more violent history than many of the other Lycian city-states. Twice in the town’s history, the populace was faced with overwhelmingly superior enemy forces. Rather than surrender, the Xanthians chose mass suicide – although what this likely meant is that the warriors chose to murder the women and children, then fight to the last warrior against the greater numbers of the enemy. During the first slaughter, 80 families were in the hills with their livestock and thus escaped to continue the town’s existence, only to end more decisively with another slaughter (although this was likely generations later).

What distinguishes the current archaeological site is the existence of unusually elaborate and tall Lycian pillar tombs, one from the 5th century B.C.E., and one from the 3rd or 4th B.C.E. Also, there are a number of reproductions of sculptures and reliefs on the site that had been carted off by archaeologist Charles Fellows, and now residing in the British Museum. Also of significance are the gorgeous remaining mosaic floors of what was once a Byzantine basilica, currently covered with gravel to preserve the floors from the elements. (Small sections are exposed for tourists like us). Finally, of particular interest is the "Xanthian obelisk," containing the largest known inscription in the Lycian tongue. This obelisk, containing the same wording in four languages, served as the "Rosetta Stone" of the Lycian language, finally enabling scholars to crack the code of that ancient tongue. (Unless the stone found at Letoon was the one enabling scholars to decipher the language; I forget which stone was the more significant).

In addition to all these unique features, Xanthos, which was a particularly large and important Lycian city, has typical later era ruins also found at other sites, which do not make them any less interesting: the Greco-Roman theater, the marble road (with a carved backgammon game on one stone), the necropolis, the acropolis, the agora, temples, and so on.

Saklikent Gorge

Our last stop on the Great Mediterranean Adventure was at Saklikent Gorge, a high, narrow canyon in the mountains of southwestern Turkey. The story is that this gorge, about 18 kilometers long and not very wide, is so steep that the sun cannot penetrate the bottom of the 600 or so foot sheer sides. Therefore, the water that flows on the bottom of the gorge stays perpetually cold. Scientifically, it’s been determined that the mountain on either side of the gorge split in two during some type of geologic cataclysm.

In 1988, a shepherd in the desolate, sparsely populated mountain expanse, lost one of his sheep. Following the audible "baahing" of his sheep, he "discovered" this remarkable geologic feature. It is now on the official tourist roster, and is quite something to behold.

After paying a small entrance fee, we walked along a wooden boardwalk attached to one side of the gorge. Near the entrance, the other side is only about twenty feet away. As we walked along the boardwalk, not far from the fast-moving water flowing at the bottom of the gorge, we kept looking up in awe at the soaring mountain on either side of us. My little camera was completely incapable of capturing the scale of those enormous cliffs. Because of recent rains, we were unable to travel more than a few hundred feet into the gorge. The plan was to have us trek a few miles into the canyon, but the swift waters made it too dangerous.

After leaving the gorge and wandering around a few concession stands selling Turkish trinkets and some treats, we boarded the bus for the long ride back to Ankara, arriving three hours ahead of schedule. This was because we had to abandon much of the Saklikent Gorge trek, and the traffic returning to Ankara was lighter than anticipated on the day everyone was returning home after the Bayram. One last impression while gazing out the bus window was the swift change from the lush mountain region we had been visiting, to the vast plain of Anatolia, with little vegetation, and miles and miles of rocky landscape. Only small towns and villages, and dozens of marble quarries, broke the ceaseless starkness of the Anatolian landscape, until we made a few rest stops in high-end highway shopping areas (with terrific, fresh lokum, or "Turkish delight.") After nine hours on the bus, we finally reached home in Ankara, and I’ve been trying to finish these blog posts ever since.