April 16, 2016

Kusadasi

Straightforwardly, Kusadasi makes one feels like there are so many exciting places to conquer in a day. From ancient cities to cotton castle, this weekend read is packed with travel stories and back-to-back visuals; so sit back and kick off your shoes! To avoid this pretty long post from getting stale, I’ve highlighted some fun facts in bold.

1. The ancient city of Hierapolis

Starting with the graveyard . . . O_O

What you’re about to see is the ruins of the BIGGEST Necropolis graveyard of the ancient world.

{Wild flowers persisting amongst graves}

All dead warriors were buried here with their swords before sunrise, after their bodies were washed and kept for two days.

There are three different types of graves and this rather minimalist looking unit is one of them. As the warriors were meat eaters, their bodies composed very fast!

In those freaky days, woman weren’t allowed to attend funerals. They were forced to cry at home and collect their tear drops in bottles the size of fingers, where someone will come to collect and bury them with the corpses. What the fuck, right?

Mourning period lasts 7 days and after the 40th day, the deceased’s wealth can then be shared.

People always thought there was gold here but truth it, there was none.

Tomb 56: This tomb from 2nd century AD has a bench in front with lion’s paws on the side facing the road. Along the walls of the interior are the funerary beds, closed off by a stone door with a metal locking system:

{A look inside}

{A brave attempt going in a grave O_O}

Romantic fun fact: In this God forsaken place once exists the hiera (sacred) water to heal people. It is also the name of the then king’s wife as his gift to her.

{A look back before approaching an almost-exit of the yard}

{More beautiful random wild flowers blooming in the grey}

I never thought that visiting a grave can be more interesting than depressing. In fact, it wasn’t depressing at all! Next, we entered the anatomy of the ancient city . . .

Here, you’ll see roman baths, basilica and calcium cliffs:

{Basilica much?}

At the end of the sacred city tour, one can see the cotton castle floating afar . . .

2. Pamukkale a.k.a. Cotton Castle

There is not much to story here compared to Hierapolis, though Pamukkale is the reason why Kusadasi, a city with only 30k population, flocks in 1 million people during summer.

Just 40 years ago, this was a fisherman village.

What you’ve got to do here, is snap a million pictures:

{Just don’t fall off the slippery white cliffs!}

3. Afrodisias

This Greco-Roman settlement is an ancient city dedicated to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love. It might not look like it, but the Turks lived here up to 1960.

{Time ate this city alive}

{How-to-get-a-tan-in-ONE-day}

{BFF extraordinaire}

This colosseum was opened 15 days a year, designed with lion paws; the parliament’s symbol of strength. I wasn’t surprised to learn that women weren’t allowed to watch gladiators fight – what more when they can’t even attend their own husband’s funerals, right?

This is the ONLY afrodisias in the world that had blue marble and for a very long time, the only people who knew about it were the Italians; which is why Italy rented it for 45 years, sending them to Sicily without the Turks knowing why. Sneaky lil’ creatures!

{Above: Pictures around the afrodisias and below: a little museum tour to end the day}

Cotton

VS

Cotton candy

{Which is your pick?}