|
|
|
Our first view of Antalya was at our lunch stop and I promptly fell in love with the town. It is a resort city with nearly two million people during the vacation season. Nearly 10.5 million people a year pass through the airport and port.
|
|
We visited the Antalya Museum, which is especially known for its collection of Roman statuary from Perge. |
Art sometimes had a hard time over the ages in Asia Minor. This statue of a woman was sledge hammered into small pieces by Christians who objected to its pagan significance. Other artworks were defaced by Christian iconoclasts (who objected to images of Christ and saints) or Muslims (who objected to depictions of the human form. |
|
 |
| |
|
This statue of a dancing girl is typical of the early Roman Empire.
|
 |
|
 |
| The museum is particularly rich in images of Nemesis for some reason. |
|
This statue is the Emperor Trajan, and, as is typical of Roman portraiture, is easily identified by the face. It would have stood in a niche at the Theater in Perge.
|
 |
|
 |
There is also a collection of sarcophagi. This is an unusual one, for a little girl's pet dog, from a family that clearly had a lot of money.
|
There is also a frieze from the Theater at Perge. |
|
 |
| |
|
The star attraction at the Antalya Museum is the statue of Herakles.
|
 |
|
 |
| The view from our hotel room in Antalya. From there we went on to explore Antalya a little. |
|
Hadrian's Gate, which used to be the main entry through the city walls.
|
Antalya has a good sense of humor about its ancient past. |
|
 |
| |
|
The fluted minaret is the symbol of the city. The mosque to which it is attached is one of the earliest multi-dome mosques in Asia Minor.
|
 |
|
 |
There were stray dogs everywhere. Gökhan said that they were community dogs: the government catches and vaccinates them every year (this one had the requisite tag in its ear) and then the community feeds and cares for them.
|
|
A view out over the old city wall. |
 |
|
 |
The next day we went to Perge, a well-preserved, wealthy city of the Roman Empire. It is famous as a place that St. Paul visited twice in his travels. It is a starting point on the St. Paul Trail.
|
|
This is the theater which will someday hold the statues from the Museum. For now it is closed for renovation.
|
 |
|
 |
| Like almost all ancient cities, Perge had massive walls. These are the remains of the Hellenistic gate, giving you an idea of what the walls must have looked like. |
|
As with all Roman cities, the baths were social hubs. The baths at Perge were especially elaborate, with two warm rooms and well as the usual cold and hot rooms.
|
|
|
 |
This is the remains of the hypocaust (heating) system, based on building large fires behind the wall and forcing the hot air under the floors of the pools.
|
|
As befitted a true hybrid Greek-Roman town, the Greek palaestra (exercise area) was right next to the later baths. |
 |
|
 |
| Always watch for wildlife! Gökhan accidentally stumbled over this tortoise in the doorway. Perhaps if it had had a candle on its back... |
|
The cats, on the other hand, made their territory known. Unlike dogs, they are not monitored by the government. "Cats are...well...cats," said Gökhan.
|
 |
|
 |
| We strolled down the main street and through the agora (marketplace). After complaining about the cold in Istanbul we probably had no right to complain about the 90°F temperatures in Perge. |
|
The shops along the edge of the agora were arranged so that they alternately opened onto the side street (like the bottom one with white stones here) and onto the agora proper (next one up).
|
 |
|
 |
The main street had a water channel running down the center of it. This provided a kind of air conditioning in the summer (when temperatures can reach 115 F) and a water source. Every few yards there were manhole covers that could be opened to allow workers to clean out the sediment from the trough--a very sophisticated system. Several bridges over the channel provided access from one side to the other.
|
|
The source of this water was the Nymphaeum, or fountain, which directed a stream into the channel. You can see the acropolis of the city behind it, but at this time (early second century AD) there was little need to maintain a fortified acropolis. |
 |
|
It turned out that it was a survey by the site archaeologists to gather data before the big summer crowds started showing up. |
We saw a blimp-shaped balloon hovering over the site.
|
|
|
