Sunday Oct 6th, The week so far

A week into the trip, Sunday marks the 5th day in Antalya.
 Overall, the weather has been great, if a little unpredictable . Wednesday evening torrential rains left the streets awash in water for 2 hours before the storm passed on, A beautiful day followed with highs approaching 30C. We spent the better part of the day checking out the Old Town and the adjacent city areas.
 Friday a guided tour took us to Perge, Aspendos and Side ( pronnounced See-Duh) all ancient city sites. Perge's history goes back to 3000 BC, but most of the current site is from the Roman Era ( around 100-200AD) The visible ruins consist of an ampitheatre,  a stadium  ( both off limits due to restoration efforts) and a central city area consisting of an Agora , a main street, several fountains and bath houses. The main street featured rows of marble columns which at one time supported a roof which covered shops and a sheltered walkway. In the centre of the street a water flowed through a central channel cooling the air during hot summer days. Much of the statuary from the theatre and the city are on display in the Antalya museum, which we visited on Saturday. Interestingly, while the statues looked very impressive, most were reproductions of originals on display at other major sites throughout the civilized world. ( Proving that the "knock-off" industry isn't really anything new!!)
 Half an hour away from Perge, the city site of Aspendos featured a fully restored Greco-Roman Ampitheatre. With a seating capacity of 20,000 it is used to this day to stage a variety of productions. Sadly, much of the upper porticos and galleries were under restoration and were off limits to the public. Some distance away from the theatre a basilica and several sections of an aquaduct made up the visible remains of the ancient city.
 Our final stop of the day, the ancient city of Side proved to be a massive site that was too large to cover in the time alloted. As a result we returned there Sunday via public transport- firstly a tram to the main bus terminal, the Otogar and from there  a bus (locally known as a dolma ( motorcoach))n order to have a more in depth look at the area.
 The trip took approx. 2 hours each way- quite a long time considering the distance- about 70km. That was largely due to the frequency of stops to pick up and drop off passengers. Considering the poor attitude and impatience of the driver, we were lucky to make it home in one piece after coming very close to collisions on several occasions. He even leaned on the horn when an ambulance with flashing lights got in his way!  The ruins themselves are spread over a fairly large area which also incorporates the modern town of Side. Several streets of restaurants and shops geared to tourists stretch inland from the waterfront for about 3/4 of a km. The largest building , the theatre is somewhat unique in that it is not built into a hillside to support the seating area. Instead the seats are supported by the structure itself, just like modern stadiums . The rest of the acient city is largely untouched ruins ( with only a few structures like the Agora and a key fountain , partly restored. Entire marble columns could be seen semi submerged in the sand that made up the walkways that meandered between the various ruined buildings. Sadly, no attempt has been made to protect the site and many of the tourists were climbing on structures with no consideration for the damage they might be causing. Only a few sensitive areas were totally off limits to the public and only viewable from behind wire fences.
  It reminded me of the way many of the ruins in Mexico and Central America were treated before the governments woke up to the fact that sites were slowly being destroyed by the tourists visiting them. It may take a few years before the Turkish authorities get the same wake up call.