Sailing into History

Having enjoyed our visits to Crete last September and Istanbul the year before, we wanted this year to continue exploring Mediterranean landscape and history.  The Spouse – being much better informed about such things – insisted that the place to go was coastal Turkey, with its wealth of ancient Greek and Roman cities.  That sounded good to me, but neither of us felt quite adventurous enough to consider traveling around Anatolia on our own.  On the other hand, bus tours didn’t appeal (for one thing, Turkey is big) and those large Mediterranean cruise liners made only cursory stops at one or two of the sites we were interested in.

After spending some time searching online, I discovered another option that seemed promising:  a British company, Peter Sommer Travels, which specializes in tours to archaeological sites in Turkey, Greece and Italy, many using two-masted Turkish sailboats known as gulets.  They run small groups of 12-14, with expert guides.  After drooling over the list of offerings, we finally settled on a one-week tour called “Cruising to Ephesus.”  It would begin in the resort city of Bodrum on the western coast of Turkey and gradually move northward toward the city of Kuşadasi, visiting archaeological sites at Myndos, Iasos, Labraunda, Didyma, Miletus and Priene, before concluding at Ephesus, one of Turkey’s most famous ancient cities.  Along the way, the brochure promised a quiet sea cruise, “pretty rocky coves perfect for swimming, relaxing, and fine dining.”  Sounded good to us, even though we’d never thought of ourselves as “cruise people.”

And so we rose very early one Saturday morning in September to catch a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul, thence to connect with another to Bodrum.  I occupied myself during both flights in reading a history of ancient Turkey recommended in our tour packet.   Our hosts sent a driver to meet us at the big new international airport outside Bodrum – a luxury I could certainly get used to – and the ship began to back out of its slip in the harbor almost as soon as we walked up the gangway. 

Kayhan II – Our Home for the Week

Thus began our introduction to life aboard a ship, albeit a smallish one, 34 meters (110 feet) long.  We were greeted by Cem, the tour manager.  (It is pronounced “Gem,” which is entirely appropriate, because he is one.)  We took a few minutes to explore our cabin – small, but comfortable and well-appointed – before hastening to the deck to watch the action as we left the harbor.   

The five-man Turkish crew included the captain, a cook and three young men who handled everything from waiting on table to racing out ahead of the ship in a zodiac boat whenever we entered or left harbor or tied up in some isolated cove.

And we met our shipmates – five other couples, three from Australia and two from Great Britain, and  Cathie, our guide, with an Oxford Ph.D. in Greek and Roman sculpture and the art and archaeology of ancient Anatolia.  We soon realized that we had landed among an interesting and congenial group with which to spend a week. It included a barrister (whatever the Australian equivalent of a Queen’s Counsel is), a British geologist, a Tasmanian construction contractor, a retired teacher and engineer, and several business people.  Obviously we shared an interest in archaeology and adventurous travel.  But above all, they had what we have observed to be that wonderful quality in Brits (and now we extend it to Aussies) – a gift for lively conversation.

As we sailed Cem and Cathie laid out the plans for the coming week: each day would involve a visit to an archaeological site, but there would be ample time for swimming and snorkeling off the boat and for relaxing while the boat motored from place to place.  We joked that we weren’t sure that we could keep up with the killing pace.  Once the ship reached a cove a little way outside Bodrun the crew let down anchor, tied up on some large rocks, and lowered steps on both sides of the ship so we could take a quick swim before dinner.  Now, I’m not all that big on swimming, but the idea of a refreshing dip in the clear blue Mediterranean after a long day of travel did sound appealing.  We scrambled below deck to change into our suits and then carefully descended the stairs to the water before making a last plunge, immediately noting that it was cooler than we’d expected.  But it was the beginning of a lovely routine that often included taking our snorkels out for a spin to explore the rocks and sea life along the shoreline. 

After a suitable period for happy hour, dinner was served at a long table in the middle of the deck with just enough spaces for the 14 of us.  And we were introduced to another routine of the week – sumptuous Turkish meals, platters loaded with fresh vegetables and fruit, local cheeses and wines, grilled meat and fresh fish, with generous dollops of yogurt, garlic, tomato sauces and herbs and spices.  Rarely if ever was anything left on the platters at the end of the meal.  Somehow we all felt encouraged to take seconds because everything was obviously so good for us!  The young sailor-waiters were also wonderfully attentive about refilling our glasses with local red and white wines.  As we ate and chatted comfortably we watched the first of many beautiful sunsets; after dinner we walked to the bow of the ship to search for the few stars that weren’t obscured by the waxing moon.

On Sunday, after breakfast – freshly-squeezed orange juice, coffee or tea, sliced peaches, apples, pears and watermelon, tomatoes, cheese and olives, yogurt and jams, fresh bread, scrambled eggs – we had time for another swim before the ship left the cove and sailed around the peninsula to Gümüşlük, a pretty village in a sheltered harbor.  This was the ancient fortified harbor of Myndos – noted as the place where Cassius fled with his naval forces after the assassination of Julius Caesar. 

Perhaps coincidentally – but probably not, given Peter Sommers’ exquisite attention to detail, our week began with visits to some of the smaller, less well excavated archaeological sites and gradually grew in size and sophistication during the week, culminating in our visit to the gloriously restored city of Ephesus.  Many of the places we would see had first been settled during the Bronze Age by Anatolian peoples, which fell under the rule of the Persian Empire.  A Persian governor named Mausolus in the 4^th century BC built up many of the cities in the region, which were later further expanded by Greek and Roman settler/conquerors.  (Mausolus is remembered for a massive memorial building constructed for him in Halicarnassus, now Bodrum, known as the Mausoleum, and hence the name for a massive burial memorial.)

We disembarked from the ship into a charming small resort town that was refreshingly unsophisticated after Bodrum, lined by pretty outdoor restaurants, some lit by large gaily decorated gourds.  Many displayed tempting piles of fresh fish, though we later learned that these had been imported from elsewhere because of restrictions on the severely depleted fisheries in the immediate region. 

Cathie led us first up a rough farm lane bound by stone walls, over which we had to clamber in order to see the ruins of an early Christian church.  She introduced us to a concept that would play an important role in our tours – spoliation, or the reuse of the materials of ancient buildings in later constructions.  We had already seen much of this in Istanbul, and it was an important reason for the disappearance of so many ancient structures.  She pointed out that although this “recycling” was destructive, it could also reflect later peoples’ pride in and desire to show off their ancient heritage.

We walked across a narrow isthmus to the other side the port where Cathie showed us the bare outlines of ruins of the ancient town that had only begun to be explored.  Then he hiked to the top of a hill overlooking the port for a good view of fortifications that had been excavated during the summer.  We returned to the boat for another excellent evening meal (lamb, I think); later many of us took a moonlit stroll along the harbor.

On Monday we again headed north to Iasos, a pretty little harbor that had in ancient times boasted a thriving port known for its fish.  We docked and walked a little way past the present village to the agora, the center of the Greek and later Roman settlement.   

Here archaeological work was more advanced and we could see a space known as a Bouleuterion, essentially a council room where local leaders met and  early plays and concerts were held.  Then we hiked up a dry stony hillside, past ruins of a temple to Artemis, a Hellenization of the Anatolian fertility goddess, and a theater.   

At the top stood ruins of a medieval castle with several examples of spolia.  On the other side of the hill, with a wonderful ocean view, we saw excavations of several private residences, some with impressive mosaics.  In the evening Cem took us out for an excellent dinner at one of the two local restaurants. 

At the beginning of the evening Cem warned us that we had a long day in store tomorrow; breakfast would be pushed ahead to make sure that we boarded our shuttle promptly at 9:00.  We proved to be a conscientious group and dutifully assembled at the small bus that awaited us on shore and headed inland through farmland and pine-covered hillsides.  Our first stop was the temple of Zeus at Euromus.   

As always, Cathie provided excellent context for what we were seeing, down to the wealth of information to be gathered from dedicatory inscriptions on temple columns, especially about donors who had paid for construction.  It had rained briefly overnight, and the early morning light and the freshness of the air in the surrounding olive grove combined to evoke a sense of timelessness.

Back in the van, we climbed steep mountain roads, glad that someone else was doing the driving.  About an hour later we reached Labraunda, the region’s most famous sacred shrine to Zeus.  When we arrived we were met by Olivier, a French-born archeologist who had directed this summer’s excavations of the site, and a colleague of Cathie’s.  They were wrapping up work for the season on the site and so he had time to give us a personal tour, a special treat.   

He was especially and understandably proud of several important finds.  There was evidence that the site had been a shrine in the Bronze Age, but then had been expanded successively over later ages, including work by our old friend Mausolus and his brother.  Much later, Byzantine Christians had constructed a church on the margins of the site, perhaps in an attempt at evangelization. 

We drove back down the winding mountain road to the inland town of Milas, where Cem had arranged for us to have a delicious lunch of grilled meat and vegetables at a small neighborhood café – where we’d never have thought to stop if we were on our but which was wonderful.  We were surrounded by life in a normal – i.e. non-tourist – market town.  Cafés were filled by older men playing something that looked like cribbage and drinking raki.  It was in fact market day, and after lunch we strolled down to the huge marketplace, with hundreds of stalls selling local produce and everything else imaginable.  We weren’t much interested in shopping, but it was fascinating to walk around and see townspeople going about their daily lives.  Eventually we all met up again and were driven back to the ship, tired but pleased with our long day’s outing.

We were rewarded on Wednesday with a morning to relax before we sailed further north to the booming resort town of Altinkum (Turkish for golden beach).  The ship anchored a little way from shore and we climbed down into the zodiac boat to be shuttled ashore, where we were met by the same bus and driver from the day before.  We again drove inland through lush farmland covered with large fields of ripening cotton to the site of ancient Miletus.   

It had been a thriving port city until the river beside which it was built silted up – leaving it literally high and dry – and producing the fertile farmland over which we had just traveled.  Just last January the Spouse and I had seen a massive market gate from Miletus that had been excavated by German archaeologists and taken back and reassembled in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.  Here we viewed the vast Roman theater, wide agoras and massive Roman baths, before taking a break with cups of hot, thick Turkish tea.

We retraced our steps to the site closer to the present coast of the Hellenistic temple of Apollo at Didyma.  Though by this time we had seen many temples, we were all awed by its massive dimensions, obvious even though most of the huge columns still lay in pieces surrounding the temple base.  One of our colleagues, who is in the business of large-scale construction projects in Tasmania, was particularly impressed by the sheer size and weight of the marble used in the foundations.  I was struck by the huge Medusa heads that had been part of the architraves.  We were there at the end of the day, as visitors trickled away and the light began to wane, which made everything that much more atmospheric.

Thursday brought another impressive inland city, Priene, whose 4^th century BC streets, temples and public buildings were especially well-preserved.

Afterwards, we sailed away from the busy resort area to a peninsula that was part of a nature preserve, and anchored in a beautiful remote harbor.  

In the morning we could see some of the wild horses that inhabit the area grazing on the hillside.

Our last day was full of perfect examples of what made the trip such a pleasure.  First, we had a long sail along the wild Mediterranean coast, then we anchored off a beautiful cove for a last swim.  Later in the afternoon we sailed into the harbor of Kuşadasi and transferred to another bus for the drive to Ephesus.  

After having had most of the sites to ourselves up to this point, we were a bit apprehensive when we saw three massive cruise ships in the harbor and the large parking lot for buses on the outskirts of Ephesus.  And in fact as we entered the large “archaeological park” the place was bustling with numerous tour groups and individual visitors, who fill the narrow stone street of the recreated city.  

But Cathie pointed out that this was a good illustration of what streets would have been like in the 1^st century AD days when Saint Paul walked there – a port city crowded with people from all over the Mediterranean.  Archaeologists from Austria had been at work at the site for over a century, excavating and re-creating much of the ancient city, though much is still covered.  (Their best finds are exhibited by the Ephesus Museum in Vienna, which we somehow missed during our visit earlier this summer – guess we’ll have to go back.)

Moreover, Cem and Cathie had planned everything to minimize the downside of crowding.  We arrived at about 4:00 pm, as the heat of the day was waning and the cruise visitors had returned to their ships.  At the end of the first street we ducked into an indoor space where archaeologists were painstakingly uncovering and restoring a series of large terraced houses.  Because of the small extra charge there were few other visitors so we had the breath-taking wall paintings and mosaics to ourselves.

By the time we re-entered the streets most visitors had gone and the ancient ruins were bathed in a golden evening light.  We were amused by a public latrine and awed by the massive gateway and the theater.  There, Cathie related the story from Acts in the New Testament in which Ephesian artisans rioted against the early Christians, whom they saw as a threat to their business of making votive models of Artemis.

Back to the ship for our last evening together, which included a clever speech by our resident barrister presenting our tips to the crew and a lively round of Quizzo conducted by Cathie with questions drawn from our travels.  Diplomatically, the teams – Aussies vs. Brits and Yanks – tied, and we shared the prize wine bottle amongst ourselves.

Saturday, our final day, was mainly a travel day.  Most of our fellow travelers were going to spend some time in Istanbul but we would continue all the way home so The Spouse could return to work the following Monday.  We clambered into our last shuttle to take us to the airport at Izmir, where most of us were booked into the same flight to Istanbul.  So we said our farewells after disembarking from our plane in Istanbul, already nostalgic about our wonderful week together, when we saw Turkey as the ancient Greeks had, from the deck of a ship.