Antalya

Ataturk (el padre de la ındependencıa Turca) descrıbıo a Antalya como el lugar mas bello del mundo. Yo no lo calıfıcarıa ası pero sın duda esta dentro de mi top 15.

La cıudad de Antalya esta dıvıdıda en la cıudad vıeja y la cıudad nueva. Nosotros solo exploramos la cıudad vıeja porque solo estuvimos 1 dia ahi. Con sus calles adoquinadas estrechas, casas del imperio otomano de madera, ruinas de iglesias y mezquitas recuerdan un poco a las calles de Guanajuato o San Miguel de Allende pero, a diferencia de estos dos, Antalya tiene unas vistas increibles al mar al final de cuentas es el mediterraneo.....
El mar es increiblemente azul, azul turquesa, y con solo eso se entiende porque un color hace referencia a un pais especifico.
La noche la hicimos lo mas turca posible…. Junto con un amigo australiano, Mark, que conocimos ese dia en el hostel, fuimos a jugar backgamon, fumamos en un nargil, vimos un partido de foot ball Beshiktaş vs. Liverpool, bebimos çay y cafe turco mientras escuchabamos nostalgicas canciones turcas cantadas por un trio turco con instrumentos tradicionales: saz.. un violin y un tambor.... :)


Ataturk, the father of Modern Turkey described Antalya as the most beuatiful place in the world. Alejandro doesn't seem to agree with this comment, but I would probably have to wait till a visit in the summer when we can really appreciate the mediterranean to comment on this :)
We only explored the old part of Antalya, as we were really only there for half a day. Since it was cold and raining, going to the beach was out of the question. Its cobblestone streets, wooden houses from the Ottoman empire, and ruins of ancient churches and mosques can only be matched by the beautiful blue, Turqouise blue of the Mediteranean!

This evening, we had as much of a Turkish night as possible. With our new Australian friend Mark, we went to a local nargile cafe to play backgammon, drink çay (turkish tea), watch a Besiktas vs Liverpool soccer game, and of course smoke nargile. We moved on to a bigger restaurant and ordered kahve (extremely concentrated and thick Turkish coffee!) and clapped along to live Turkish Folk music performed by a trio. One played a stringed lute like instrument called the saz, the second played the violin, and the third sang. What an awesome night.

Pamukkale

Una de las cosas que mas me agrado sobre los Museos arqueologicos de Turquia es que no hay una ruta establecida, la ciudad esta ahi y tu la exploras a tu antojo y Pamukkale / Hierapolis es uno de los mejores ejemplos.

Para ser mas claro voy a dividir Pamukkale en dos atracciones: las ruinas de la ciudad antigua de Hierapolis y las aguas termales con calcificaciones.

Las aguas termales con sus caprichosas formaciones de calcio es la principal atraccion de Pamukale. Se supone que Cleopatra se bano en estas aguas. Nosotros solo metimos las piernas y caminar sobre las blancas formaciones de calcio con el agua caliente cubriendote las piernas es una sensacion que realmente vale la pena.

Hierapolis es una de las ciudades romanas mas grandes y mejor conservadas en Turquia. Se piensa que aqui fue martirizado San Felipe (uno de los 12 apostoles) y en su memoria, en el lugar de su crucifixion se construyo una impresionante y muy diferente (arquitectonicamente hablando) iglesia de estilo bizantino. La iglesia tiene un centro octogonal rodeada de 8 cuartos rectangulares cada uno accesible mediante 3 arcos centrales. Aunque la Iglesia esta en ruinas es muy facil imaginar como fue en el pasado La Iglesia estaba afuera de la ciudad de Hierapolis asi que para visitarla hay que caminar aprox 10 min cuesta arriba. La manana que la visitamos habia neblina asi que la naturaleza colaboro para darnos una ambientacion de misterio a la ya de por si intrigante muerte de San Felipe con la, tambien, intrigante Historia y arquitectura de la Iglesia. (Ya que la iglesia esta construida sobre otra Iglesia, ademas fue incendiada y dinalmente destruida en un Terremoto, Los restos de San Felipe no se han podido encontrar a la fecha)

.

.

On the way to Pamukale and Hieropolis we stopped in Aphrodisias. Aphrodisias was a small townin Asia Minor dedicatd to the Greek goddess of love Aprodite. Some interesting marble statues and parts of buildings have survived. We really weren[t in the mood this morning to see more rocks so we didn;t spend too much time here. I did however use my bargaining skills to get an evil eye necklace for 1 lira.

.

ok on to Hierapolis and Pamukkale. Both are recognized as UNESCO World heritage sites.

Pamukkale means cotton castle in Turkish. Hot springs containing a high quantity of chalk led to the creation of these cotton castles or limestone formations. Even though the formations have been largely destroyed by humans, they are still an amazing site. Near the formations is the ancient city of Hierapolis. Hierapolis was founded as a thermal spa in the 2nd century BC.

One cool thing about Hierapolis is that you are pretty much free to roam around wherever you want. There are no ropes, guards, or anything to control where you can walk and where you can't, so we were able to climb and explore to our hearts content. However, its probably exactly this type of freedom to explore that resulted in the damage done to Pamukkale.

.

We stayed in a queit family run pension near pamukkale. That evening, we tried to watch the news about the Bush Erdogan meeting in Washington DC, but my limited Turkish skills failed me. So we just played some backgammon and went to bed.

The Seven Churches of the Apocolypse

Las 7 Iglesias del Apocalipsis segun San Juan del nuevo testamento se encuentran en la region de Anatolia en Turquia.

La Apocalipsis se encuentra escrita de tal forma que pueden darsele muchas interpretaciones o mas bien ninguna interpretacion. Quizas la palabla Iglesia en el libro del apocalipsis refiere mas a la doctrina o poblacion del area a la que fueron dirigidas las cartas mas que a una Iglesia fisica. De cualquier forma 7 Iglesias Catolicas fueron construidas en las regiones a las que San Juan escribio las 7 cartas de la apocalipsis.

Las 7 Iglesias estan en ruinas unas mejor conservadas, pero todas ellas, o almenos las que visitamos, guardan cierto aire de misterio.

Las 7 Iglesias son: Eskihisar (Laodicea), Efes (Efeso), Bergama (Pergamo), Izmir (Smyrna), Akhisar (Thyatira), Sart (Sardis) y Alashehir (Filadelfia).

Nosotros visitamos solo las primeras 3. arriba las fotos de cada una.

.

.

In the New Testament, seven churches of the Apocalypse are mentioned. These churches are all located around the area of Izmir, Bergama, and Pamukale. Saint John wrote seven letters of the Apocolypse and sent them to seven churches (which might actually be interpreted as 7 congregations of Christians rather than physical buildings... in any case Catholic churches were eventually built in each of these towns.) The Seven Churches are Eskihisar (Laodicea), Efes (Efeso), Bergama (Pergamo), Izmir (Smyrna), Akhisar (Thyatira), Sart (Sardis) y Alashehir (Filadelfia). The churches are now mostly in ruins... however some are a bit better preserved than others. We visited the first three.

Bursa and Bergama

Desafortunadamente nuestra visita a Bursa fue muy breve y no vimos mucho de la ciudad pero pasamos un excelente tiempo con un amigo que tenemos ahi. Llegamos de Itsambul a Bursa como a las 5 pm y nos encontramos con Cengiz el nos llevo a comer Iskender Kebaps que es un platillo de carne de cordero con una salsa turca delicioso... Despues fuimos a su casa jugamos OK con reglas que me invente, nos sirvio un platillo Bulgaro (el es originario de Bulgaria) platicamos de la vida, de deportes, de religion, del amor mientras el bebia Wisky y yo vodka al estilo turco..... medio vaso del licor con un par de hielos y ya!
Al dia siguiente partimos a Seljuk haciendo una parada en Pergama una ciudad antigua griega en ruinas en donde visitamos el templo de Dionisio, el templo de Zeus y el Santuario de Asclepius

En las fotos esta nuestro amıgo Gengız en bursa una foto del templo de Zeus (o lo que queda) y una foto de Farheen y yo en el templo de Zeus

We probably didn't really do justice to Bursa...but I guess we'll just have to return next time.

After sleeping in late, taking a bus from our hostel to the airport, renting a car at the airport, driving across all of Istanbul, past the Colgate plant I used to work at in Gebze, to Eskihisar, taking the car ferry over to the other side, and driving another 1.5 hrs, we finally reached Bursa at 5pm. While waiting for Cengiz, a friend of a friend who we were going to hang out with, I took the opportunity to go shopping. The famous Turkish towels are actually made in Bursa so ofcourse I had to pick up a couple of them! We met Cengiz and went out to eat Iskender Kebap...awesome! Then we went back to Cengiz's place, chatted about life, love, etc, listened to Turkish music and played a board game called OK using a combination of Mexican and Turkish rules. It proved to be quite a fun night.

The next day we left for Bergama. There we visited the ruins of the ancient city of Pergamon which is believed to have had a population of 150,000 at its height in the 1st century AD. We didn't eat anything interesting here :) However we did drive on to Izmir the same evening and there we enjoyed midye dolmasi (stuffed shells) again!

Cave of the Seven Sleepers / Leyenda de los 7 durmientes

A solo unos kilometros de Efeso nos encontramos con un lugar que tiene una leyenda relamente interesante creida por cristianos y musulmanes:
En la epoca en la que el cristianismo se propagaba en esta region, 250 DC, a 7 jovenes creyentes en el cristianismo les fue dado un tiempo para negar sus creencias, estos jovenes fueron a una cueva a rezar, como los romanos vieron que los jovenes no se habian arrepentido de sus creencias cristianas mandaron a sellar dicha cueva con los jovenes adentro. 240 anos despues la cueva fue descubierta por el porpietario del lugar. Ahi encontraron a los 7 jovenes los cuales despertaron pensando que se habian dormido por una noche. Los jovenes se sorprendieron al ver que el cristianismo era la religion oficial del imperio y que sus monedas estaban “fuera de circulacion” Los jovenes fueron entrevistados por el obizpo y rl emperador Teodosio II considero este hecho como resurreccion. El Koran hace referencia a esta historia.


On the way out of Efesus we ran across another site that we had originally not heard of, the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. The legend apparently is that seven young men, in trying to escape persecution as Christians during the reign of the Roman emperor Decius in 250 AD, gave their belongings to the poor and climbed up to a mountain cave to pray. The emperor, seeing that the men were not about to reject their faith and accept paganism ordered that the mouth of the cave be sealed with the men sleeping inside. Approximately 140 years later the landowner openned the cave to use it for his own purposes only to find the young men still asleep. They awoke thinking they had slept one day and when they tried to use the few coins they still carried on them to buy food in the market, the people realised that something was wierd! The local bishop interviewed the sleepers and was astonished to hear their story. The young men later died and were commemorated as the Seven Holy Sleepers.




This story known as Ashaab -e-Kahf in Islam appears in the Quran in Surah Al-Kahf (18, the Cave).

Efesus - Efes - Efeso

Ayer visitamos Efeso. Aqui estaba el templo de Artemisa el cual era una de las 7 maravillas del mundo antiguo. Ahora solo quedan ruinas de el y se requiere de mucha imaginacion para reconstruirlo con todo su esplendor. Sin embargo la antigua ciudad de Efeso esta mucho mas conservada y la biblioteca de Celso es uno de los edificios mas mas impresionantes junto con el teatro.

En esta ciudad San Pablo fue encarcelado por atentar contra los Dioses griegos. Tambien fue aqui que vivieron sus ultımos Dıas San Juan y la Virgen Maria. El primero esta enterrado muy cerca del templo de artemisa se le contruyo una catedral la cual tambien esta en ruinas debido a un terremoto en la edad medıa.

Tambien fuimos a visitar la casa de la Virgen Maria, lugar de peregrinaje de Cristianos y Musulmanes. La casa esta "escondida" en medio de un bosque el cual esta en un monte enfrente de la antigua ciudad de Efeso. Este lugar fue descubıerto hace 100 anos aprox. Al agua del manantıal, de donde La Virgen bebia agua, se le atribuyen propiedades curativas.

Tanto la casa como la tumba de San Juan son lugares de mucho caracter que emanan mucha paz.

Las fotos son de la tumba de San Juan la casa de la Vırgen Marıa lo que queda de lo que fue una de las 7 maravıllas del mundo y la bıblıoteca de Celsus

Yesterday, after spending the night in Atilla-s Getaway (not quite as resort-ish as it may sound, but still one of the better places we have stayed at on this trip), we visited almost everything ther is to see in the town of Selcuk. The morning started with a visit to the ancient city of Efesus. The library and theatre were among the most impressive and best preserved of the buildings there. A few km away from the ruins of Efesus is the Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Unfortunately, there is not much left of it so requires alot of imagination to recreate it in its original splendor.

There are various important sites for Christinas and Muslims in Efesus as well. St. Paul was imprisoned on a mountain in this city for not accepting the Greek Gods. St John and the Virgin Mary moved here from Jerusalem for their safety. St John was later buried here and an impressive cathedral was built on the site. It is also believed that the Virgin Mary was buried nearby, however a grave has never been found. Approximately 100 years ago, the house where she lived was discovered in the woods and is now a pilgrimage site for Christians and Muslims. The well where Mary used to drink water continues to provide water now and is considered to have healing powers and has cured millions of their illnesses. The Cave of the Seven Sleepers, or Ashaab-e-Kahf is nearby as well...More on that in the next entry.

Istanbul cıty of lost churches and mosques

Hoy fuımos en busca de 2 tesoros perdıdos en Istambul: Una mesquıta y una Iglesıa bızantına llamada Iglesia de Chora, que por azares del destıno no son turıstıcas y han quedado perdıdas en la cıudad pero tıenen una enorme ımportancıa hıstorıca.

Fuımos a la Mezquıta del sultán Eyüp fue la prımera mezquıta en ser construıda en Estambul despues de la caıda de Constantınopla. Se construyo en 1458 pero cayo en ruınas y su reconstruccıon termıno en 1800 aprox. En esta mezquıta esta enterrado Eyüp Ensarı gran personaje para los musulmanes sunnı. personaje. que segun ellos. era amıgo del profeta Mohammed del cual recıbıo el estandarte del Islam. Tambıen en esta mezquıta los sultanes eran envestıdos con la espada de Osman. el cual fue el prımer emperador otomano.

Ahora. sobre la Iglesıa: Esta Iglesıa fue construıda en el ımpreıo bızantıno (es una ıglesıa catolıca) sın embargo esta llena de sımbolos y mısterıo. Los mosaıcos y frescos se han conservado cası perfectamente desde 1315 que fue caundo empezo su construccıon. En estos mosaıcos se cuenta la hıstorıa de la vıda de la Vırgen Marıa segun un evangelıo apocrıfo de San Juan. Tambıen se cuenta la hıstorıa de la nınez de Jesús ademas de tener frescos con su genealogıa de hasta 66 de sus antepasados Lo cual es hasta cıerto punto ironico a la ıdea de que Crısto tuvo antepasados sıendo el el Hıjo de Dıos.....

Today we went in search for a mosque and a church somewhat off the beaten path of most tourists.

First we went to the Eyup Sultan Mosque which was the first mosque to be built in Istanbul after the fall of Constantinople. On the grounds of this mosque, Eyup Ansari or Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, the companion and standard bearer of the Prophet Mohammed was buried. The mosque also contains a stone bearing the footprint of the Prophet Mohammed.

Next we visited the Church of Chora. This Catholic Church was constructed during the Byzantine Empire and is full of symbols and mysteries. The mosaics and frescoes have been preserved extremely well since its construction in 1315. Some of these mosaics depict the life of the Virgin Mary according to sources not supported by the Catholic church, the youth of Jesus Christ (Prophet Isa), and the genealogy of Jesus Christ back 66 generations.

After our day exploring we crossed the Bosphorus river to the Anatolian side to meet up with my coworkers from Colgate Palmolive in Bostanci, the neighborhood of Istanbul I lived in when I was there three years ago.

We enjoyed excellent mezes and kebaps at Gunaydin Restaurant overlooking the water. As every other night in Turkey so far we finished this one on a sweet note - a dessert from the black sea region that resembled a crepe filled with nuts and honey.