Some Turkey Loving

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (Turkish: Sultan Ahmet Camii) is a historic mosque in Istanbul. The mosque is popularly known as the Blue Mosque for the blue tiles adorning the walls of its interior. It was built from 1609 to 1616, during the rule of Ahmed I. Its Külliye contains a tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque is still popularly used as a mosque. This mosque is beautiful, not only from outside but the interior too. Everything look so peaceful and reconcile. Do avoid visiting at prayer time or within a half hour after the azan is chanted from the Mosque minarets because mosque closes for 90 minutes at each prayer time.

In order to get to our destination, we need to cross pass by the Aegean sea. They have ferries to carry vehicles (just like Penang once had) to the Asia part of Turkey. Do you know that Turkey is made up of two continents, Europe and Asia? Imagine by just crossing a bridge and you can be on the other continent without having to show your passport. Isn't it cool to be a Turkish? However only Istanbul is considered Europe and I wonder do the Turkish insisted on getting their children being born in Istanbul so that they can be Europeans? I was really sad and almost fell into depression to watch the movie TROY a week after I came back from Turkey. If only time can be rewind, and to I were to visit this archeological site after I have watched the movie. Not the opposite. So that I can see how ruin is the city now compare to the computer-generated glorious moment of Troy once upon a time. Seriously if you have not watch this movie either, go watch NOW. Excavations revealed that this piece of land, before Troy, had 9 different cities and 46 levels of habitations almost 3000BCE. Which impressed me a lot because I still couldn't imagine a city being totally buried and gone while another new city being built on it after some years. Although this place is look less interesting (due to massive damaged) than it supposed to be, the story and myth of this place did not fail to interest me. I love myths. Especially the ones with ruins and better ones which turned into movies. Still, I hope to hop back to the ferry and cross the Aegean sea to Greece! I believe there are more ruins to be explore.

We reached our destination after 4 hours of bus ride. Ephesus is another ruin city like Troy (mentioned in my previous post) but in my opinion, this ruin city is far more beautiful and well preserved than Troy. Ephesus is connected to Greek mythology like Troy as well where names like Hercules, Hermes, Nike and Medusa appeared on the monuments. We went in from the East entrance and went along the path until the "car park" area seen above. Now I am starting to wonder, have I missed out the Temple of Artemis?! I think I really did missed out the Temple of Artemis. I think I have learn and see a lot of things in Ephesus. I always have a thing on history and I am so glad to be able to time travel, back to the venue where everything once happened. This is definitely one of my favourite attraction in Turkey. Do not miss out Ephesus if you are going to Turkey! And don't forget to purchase the audio guide!

Even though it has been 4 months since I came back from Turkey, I still get bewitched by the beauty of that magical place when I flip back the photos.The same goes to this place, which took my breath away watching sunrise while soaking my feet in the flowing hot spring water. Pamukkale has been one of the top attraction of Turkey even before it is declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tourists and locals visit Pamukkale and Hierapolis frequently not only for its extraordinary look and its ancient history but also for wellness as the water is scientifically proven to cure many diseases. However, access to terraces are not allowed lately due to the new regulations on protecting and preventing further damage to the historical site. According to our guide, layers of carbonate minerals are scrapping off and getting thinner day by day. This place might restrict any visitors in the near future as an effort to preserve this extraordinary site of Hierapolis. On our last visit, only small pools are allowed to be used and we were asked to follow the main pathway. We really had a great time soaking our legs in the hot spring water. We had a hard time walking bare feet from the entrance to the hot spring because the ground was freezing cold! But our effort paid off the moment we dipped our feet inside the spring water. It feels like heaven and you will not believe how beautiful was the sunrise that day.

On our fifth day of our trip in the magical land, we visited Göreme National Park in Cappadocia, an open air museum and another popular UNESCO World Heritage in Turkey with volcanic landscape sculpted by erosion forming a succession of mountain ridges, valleys and pinnacles known as “fairy chimneys”. The location of Göreme was first settled back in the Roman period. Christianity was then the prevailing religion in the region, which is evident from many rock churches that can still be seen today. There are eleven refectories within the Museum, with rock-cut churches tables and benches. Each is associated with a church. Most of the churches in Göreme Open Air Museum belong to the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries where Christians lived, worked and worshipped. What surprise me is the fact that no stone-craved cross is spotted even though cave churches are concentrated in this area. Interior of these caves are covered with beautiful frescoes whose colours still retain all their original freshness. No photo of the fresco was taken because apparently it was strictly prohibited. Sun rays making the ash and lava look like huge gold nuggets. If you think the photos are awesome, wait till you see it with your naked eyes. It was pretty gloomy and cloudy on December. Not forgetting the cold breeze too. We were pretty lucky that it was not raining or else it would be slippery climbing up these caves and we would not be able to have clear view from of the scenery at all.