Antalya

This morning we left the Emli Valley and the Aladaglar Area and drove for 5 hours to Konya. In Konya we had lunch and visited the Mevlana Museum. The Mevlana museum is the mausoleum of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Sufi mystic also known as Mevlana or Rumi. It was also the dervish lodge of the Mevlevi order, better known as the whirling dervishes.

The members of the Mevlevi order had a prolific impact throughout the Ottoman Empire in classical poetry, calligraphy, visual arts and music. Afterwards we continued driving until we arrived in Antalya.

It is uncertain when the site of the current city was first inhabited. Attalos II, king of Pergamon, was believed to have founded the city around 150 BC, naming it Attalia and selecting it as a naval base for his powerful fleet. However, excavations in 2008 in the Dogu Garaji district of Antalya have uncovered remains dating to the 3rd century BC, suggesting that the city was founded earlier than previously supposed.

Antalya became part of the Roman Republic in 133 BC when King Attalos III of Pergamum willed his kingdom to Rome at his death. The city grew and prospered during the Ancient Roman period. The city includes sites with traces of Lycian, Pamphylian, and Hellenistic -but mainly Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman- architecture and cultures.

We spent the Night in the Old Part of Antalya at the Kaleici next to the Harbour.

Here is my diary entry:
Friday 8.30 am. Arrived in Antalya on the Mediterranean Coast late last night after our climb in the Taurus Mountains. It was certainly the toughest trek I have done (harder than any I have done in Nepal and tougher than the Inca Trail in Peru).

We had up to 10.5 hrs of walking each day with huge altitude gains on unstable and exposed slopes. For some it was a little too tough, but I was amazed at the way the group worked together to assist those who were struggling. We even had our first helicopter evacuation when one of our group got sick and could not continue. The first rescue helicopter circled overhead but could not land because of the high altitude.

It then took a call to get the Australian Embassy involved and a huge Turkish military helicopter and a full blown military operation to lift them out.

Because we are relatively close to the unstable border with Syria the copter was very keen to load and take off without delay. Turkish fighter jets have been regularly flying overhead. A reminder that this is a very volatile part of the world.

Now that they are well again, I am sure they will have a great tale to tell. When we finished the trek, everyone was thrilled with what they had achieved. That is the amazing thing about these sort of trips - ordinary people can do extraordinary things. I am sure that we all with come back with a revised idea of what we can achieve.

Now we are in the easy and relaxing part of the trip. We are relaxing on the coast and will soon head off on a cruise to explore the nearby underwater city. We will be following the Mediterranean coast all the way back to Gallipoli and Istabul over the next 8 days. Along the way we will be visiting a number of famous historical sites.

The group is fabulous, all getting along very well and having truckloads of laughs. We will all have so many stories to tell when we return to Australia. I can't post images yet but will set up an album later.Read more