nateniale's travels

{ November 2009 - Pamukkale & Hierapolis, Turkey } We left our hotel in Kusadasi early in the morning with quite heavy rain, while the bus made its way to a town called Pamukkale which meant cotton castle. The town was about 3 hours away, and we hoped that the rain would stop before we got there. Our tour guide was a retired English teacher, who mothered us pretty well! When we reached Pamukkale, we could see huge patch of whites on the hills. It was definitely an interesting sight. The old Roman city of Hierapolis was built on top of the hill, around the travertine . The amazing site was created as the water, full with calcium carbonate, flowed down the cliff and the calcium was deposited around the cliff making it white. The purported health benefits of the travertine made the Romans build a spa city there. The ancient town, Hierapolis, is a UNESCO's World Heritage Site . And of course, a Roman city isn’t complete until you built a theatre! We were allow...

{ November 2009 - Kusadasi, Selçuk & Ephesus, Turkey } Our 5th day started with a beautiful view from our hotel in Kusadasi . We arrived pretty late the night before, and so we could not really enjoy the view. We went out for a short walk in the morning to soak in the scenery. Kusadasi is a town by the Aegean Sea . It is a beautiful seaside town that is mainly catered for tourists. And so, like all seaside tourist town, it doesn’t have much of a culture. The bus came to pick us up for a tour of Ephesus . From the readings that we have done before leaving for Turkey, we knew that Ephesus was one of the best-preserved Roman town, or rather city considering the size. And, boy was it huge and amazing. Many of the structures were still standing, and it was the best ancient Roman town that we saw in the whole of Turkey! Can you spot the word Trajan among the Greek letters? There were great mosaics on a section of the floor. I could only try to imagine how the place orig...

{ November 2009 - Pergamum, Turkey } We took a morning flight from Istanbul to Izmir, and from there, it was a 3 hour car ride to Pergamum . First stop was Acropolis - a old city on top of a hill. The whole area was pretty run down, with lots of ruins and rubble. According to our tour guide, many of the archeological treasures were excavated by the Germans and were displayed in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. However, there were still some impressive sights like this Temple of Trajan... ... and the theater with a view! The theater was on a very steep slope and very high. Wonder how they can watch the performances all the way down at the bottom... Next, we went to Asclepion, a famous medical centre 2000 years ago. This was the symbol of Asclepios , the god of medicine. The snakes are still used as symbols for medicine today! And this was the Temple of Telephorus where patients slept hoping that Telephorus, a god of medicine, would send a cure or diagnosis in a ...