Edirne

Man am I ever glad I decided to come to Edirne. The town itself has a great feel and the sites (mostly mosques) here are absolutely magnificent. I'd have to say this is my favorite town I've visited since I left far eastern Turkey.



These photos are only a sampling and there will be more coming tomorrow. Hopefully the weather will be better in which case I am going to revisit most of what I saw today. Otherwise I'll at least post some more of what I took today.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to head back to İstanbul to run out my last day and a half in Turkey.

İznik

İznik (also known as Nicaea) is another one of these Turkish towns where you can't swing a dead cat without smacking history in the face (or something). I don't have too much to say on that though other than that a couple of Alexander the Great's generals fought over it and that some very important Christian doctrine was apparently decided here.

Anyway, on to the pictures...



I've pretty much decided that I am going to Edirne tomorrow rather than sticking around here for another day. All that history notwithstanding there isn't all that much to see here and I've been wanting to see Edirne so I might as well add an extra stop before I leave.

Bursa

I managed to drag myself away from Selçuk on schedule so I made it to Bursa yesterday. Although it is a pretty modern city and very different from what I am usually looking for I kind of like it.



Tomorrow I am heading to the nearbye town of İznik for one or two nights. If I only stay a night it will allow me to fit in one more town before I head back to İstanbul on Friday (which reminds me that I have yet to mention here that I fly home this Sunday).

Saving the best ruins for last.

The round trip journey to Afrodisias covered nearly 200 miles, took a bit more than 9 hours, and involved rides on 7 different busses and minivans. It was well worth it as the site ended up being by far my favorite of the ancient (i.e. Roman, Byzantine, Greek) ruins I've visited in Turkey.



I am supposed to be leaving for Bursa tomorrow but may stick around here for one more day.

Ephesus Redux

I went back to see Ephesus again yesterday. When I was here back in May I ran through it pretty quickly, missed quite a lot, and wasn't too happy with most of my photos. I figured while I was back here at Selçuk Atilla's it was worth another visit. Here are a few photos from this visit (my photos from last time are here)...



Tomorrow I will probably take that side trip back to Afrodisias.

A little bit from Ankara.

Ankara is a big, modern, characterless city with nothing much to see. The only real draw is the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations which contains finds from archeological sites all over Turkey. In fact most of the significant archological finds in Turkey (at least those that haven't been removed from the country by various European archeologists) are on display there.

With the exception of the last all of these photos are from the museum...



Tomorrow I will probably end up heading straight for Selçuk Atilla's unless it clears up. I had planned on visiting Afrodisias on the way but it is pouring all over this part of the country today and is forecast to continue doing so tomorrow. I'll be at Selçuk Atilla's for most of a week so I can always take a day trip back there in a few days.

Safranbolu

Safranbolu is a cute little town that is very firmly on the tourist track. The prime draw here are the well-preserved Ottoman houses in the old quarter.



Other than the houses there isn't much to see here so today I took a long walk out to see the İncekaya Aqueduct at the Tokatlı Gorge outside of Safranbolu. The aqueduct itself probably wouldn't have been worth the 10 mile walk but the gorge and countryside were pretty and it was nice to get out of town for a while.



Tomorrow I'm heading to Ankara for a single night. After that I think I'm going back to Pamukkale. Although I've already been there it is the best place to access the ruins at Afrodisias, something I skipped on my way through in May.