Travels in Turkey

Wishing you all a happy and creative New Year filled with good things! It's been a long time since my last post--more than four months. To make up for my incredible laziness I'd like to share some photos from my recent trip to Turkey...a magical land with a winning combination of sea, mountains, a rich ancient history, lovely handcrafts and charming villages.

The photos in this post are from the site of the ancient Lycian city of Myra. Much there has been leveled by earthquakes over the more than two thousand years since the city was built but it still possesses the bulk of a fine stone amphitheatre and a beautiful collection of rock cut tombs carved out of the cliff face that towers over the site. There are also row upon row of carved stones from other buildings which are no longer standing. The intriguing bas relief faces and decorative motifs on these must have kept a small army of stone carvers busy over many years...

 Carved stone building parts, Myra, Turkey

More carved stones from fallen buildings

View of Myra's amphitheatre and the cliff with rock cut tombs behind it

Stone garland and figures

More beautiful decorative stone

Amphitheatre entrance

A rubble filled stairway in the amphitheatre

A bit of "out of character" carving on a building stone--maybe an example of ancient stone carver's graffiti?

A fallen lintel in the amphitheatre

More decorative carving

A tomb entrance

Rock cut tombs

Another tomb entrance

Virtuosity in stone

Tombs carved from solid rock in the cliff face more than two thousand years ago

Another entrance to the amphitheatre

 

 

 

Overview of the largest cluster of rupestrian tombs

 

 

 

 

Part of the amphitheatre

Some tombs are nearly free standing but still firmly rooted in the rock from which they were carved.