A Turkish Road Trip!

Introduction to our Turkish Road Trip

Welcome to the land of tractors and silver-domed mosques. The south Aegean and western Anatolia region is a beautifully rustic area in south west Turkey that hosts some of the most magnificent Roman sights in the whole of the Med. They say Turkey is an open-air museum with more Greek and Roman antiquities than Greece and Italy put together, so when we say the ‘whole of the Med’ what we really mean to say is ‘some of the most magnificent sights in the world’.

Having now been resident in Turkey for over a year neither Liz nor myself had been to any of the splendid places frequently referred to in the guide books. With Liz’s birthday coming up, however, and the vague possibility that we may even leave to go off sailing sometime soon (perish the thought!), we thought we’d inject ourselves with a dose of culture and find out what the big deal is about Efes (Ephesus), Aphrodisias, Pamukkale, Hierapolis, Sirince and Didyma. It turned into a birthday treat Liz would not forget.

The next page will take you to our account of the 850km we drove over the weekend to take in these sights. Without intention we ticked off five incredible places, all at the right time of day, and rarely drove on the same road twice, so if you’re interested in visiting some of these places you’d do well to check out our account. If you’ll never get to visit Turkey allow our photographs to help create a feel for these places.

Tip to photographers: if you undertake this trip ensure you have plenty of memory cards/film, have charged your battery and are in possession of a phat wide angle lens!

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