The Turkish Olympos, not to be confused with the Greek Mt. Olympus, home of the gods, is a historic city from the Hellenistic and Roman periods that has been left undug and unrestored, which makes it especially interesting. Here you get to see what the ancient cities look like when they are first discovered, crumbling and taken over by vegetation. The city is large, and the forest now covering its formerly glorious streets and houses makes it a very pleasant place for walking. Columns, finely cut and inscribed stones, and even sarcophagi are strewn around it, tossed by earthquakes and water. There are remains of a theater, baths, a temple, many houses and an expertly built city wall. A river passes in the middle and empties into the sea at the southern border of the city. It must have been a great place to live in, no doubt about that. Now it’s a great ruin for us to visit. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Chimaera is also a unique place, and the stuff of legends. It is said that this is where the legend of Chimera, the fire-breathing creature, comes from. Our minibus took us to the base of the mountain, late at night, and our torches firmly in our hands, we ascended the mountain on a stone pathway. Up on the slope there is a spot where flames come out of the mountain; they are fueled by gases seeping out of the ground, and they’ve been burning like that for thousands of years. So we sat, warming our by hands by the same fires that the ancient Greeks and Romans used, imagining how the place must have looked like then. Alexander the Great probably had barbecue here. The European re-discoverer of the site in the 19th century noted that the locals used it for exactly this purpose. These days it’s just a site to visit, ponder, and leave as is for the following visitors.

April 22, 2011