Travels in Turkey, Part 7 of 12
I’ve fallen quite behind on my series of posts, haven’t I? My excuse, well, of course, too much traveling, not enough time to reflect and write!
Our summer trip to Turkey allowed us to visit a number of diverse locations in Turkey: Istanbul, Cappadocia, the Aegean Sea and Ankara. While in Ankara, we stayed in modern apartments at Bilkent University and managed to learn how to use the university buses to travel between the campus and Ankara proper each day (except for the day we couldn’t figure it out and rode a dolmus!).
On our excursions to Ankara, we managed to visit a number of ancient Roman archaeological sites, prompting us to assume that every building in Ankara must be built upon some amazing ruin.
One day, we headed to the citadel. As you might expect, this fortress was a the top of a very tall, steep hill. Near the fortress is the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations. Housed in an old bazaar building, the museum is well worth a visit both for the displays and artifacts as well as for the fascinating architecture! Once we had cooled down from the hike up and had explored the museum (and had a snack at the snack bar), we continued on our way up to the citadel. What a view! As an American, I was shocked at the lack of “safety measures”. No railings, extremely high dropoffs, kids scampering around. Shocked, but not terrified. My girls, too, walked around on the tops of the walls, though I’m said “Be careful” far too many times.
Another day we headed into the center of the city to find the Column of Julian,. As we walked up Ataturk Boulevard, we entered a plaza with a huge statue of Ataturk. My dad, wanting to take a photo, was quickly chased away by a policeman. Our first thought was that they were protecting Ataturk, but then soon notcied the deranged man on top of one of the statues of soldiers surrounding Ataturk. Despite warnings from Rob that I might have my camera confiscated, I took a bunch of photos of the rescue scene unfolding. We watched as the police talked to the crazy guy, then the fire department showed up with ladders and tarps and then wrestled the man safely down from his forbidden perch.
Once the man was rescued, we headed up around the corner to the Column of Julian. There it was, in the middle of the steet, surrounded by government buildings. As Americans, we are always blown away by such ancient artifacts sitting out and not protected! Near the column, we also found some excavations, covered in glass. Standing on the glass, we peered down at ancient plumbing.
We continued up the hill further to the Temple of Augustus and Rome. It was not marked marked well, and we almost gave up, but then we managed to find it hidden amongst the various buildings and mosques. The mosque was built right into the temple!
We worked our way back to Ataturk Blvd and found the entrance into the Roman Baths. It was not obvious, and it was certainly not crowded. We had the place to ourselves, other than a few archaeologists. While called the Baths, the area havd the baths, a graveyard, and much more for us to explore. Ther was also a house (a modern one, not a Roman one) with a swingset and tricycles in the yard in the middle. Imagine growing up there! We could walk right up to and touch Roman columns, gravestones, pulpits and more. The inscriptions on the gravestones were legible, and I wished we had brought paper and crayons so we could have made some rubbings! The baths were behind fences, but amazing to see anyway!
