The trifecta for our ruins tour today is Priene. It’s a temple to Athena, perched up in the hills of the mountains overlooking the plains. At one time, it was a port city, but the Meander river (the twisting course of this river gave us the meaning of the word “meander”) silted over in the 2nd Century AD and the city was abandoned. The drive from Miletus takes about 40 minutes or so – all through the countryside, on a 2 line road lined with those flooded fields. We pass few little villages and houses, and a small town where every café is filled with men (we’ve noticed that all along the way, not a woman to be seen – is it because it is Sunday and the women are home cooking? Or is this just a normal event in a Muslim country? Not quite sure).
We find the sign that directs us to Priene without much problem, and turn up the steep drive to the site. There is a bus here…bummer….and a line to buy tickets that takes forever. We’re not sure what the problem is, but it takes about 15 minutes for us to get our tickets and head out into the site. There is a huge group of what looks like local college age students here, but they are all clustered around their guide at the entrance to the site, so we skirt the crowd and head up the hill.
Oh boy – and it’s a hill! There are stairs directly up, and a path that winds off to the side. We take the overland route, and look out over the farmland in the huge valley as we trudge up the hill. The skies are getting black and threatening, so we want to try to see everything as best we can, and as quickly as we can!
The path rejoins the stairs at the entrance to the city where we choose to go to the temple first thing. Wow. I know I’m saying that a lot, but seriously – wow. The first glimpse we get is of what I have dubbed the “debris field of ruins”. Tons of marble column and fenestra pieces, decorative slabs and other miscellaneous architectural leftovers.
Then we see the temple – the five remaining columns standing majestically on their bases, framed by the rough and tumble mountainside. Left us speechless, really. It is just so picturesque!
You can just imagine the majesty and the awe this temple inspired when it was complete and standing up above the river harbor in the hills. The view from here are spectacular – and were probably even better when there was a river down there.
There is a great depiction of the river silting on a sign post up there. You can see Priene and Miletus and also Kusadasi as it is today – and see exactly how much the land has grown over the centuries. It just is so hard to believe (and I won’t make any global warming commentary here either, promise).
We take our time soaking in the atmosphere as the clouds swirl around and the atmosphere is heavy with impending weather. Sort of makes it all the more mysterious and spectral. The tour group is still down below near the agora, so we once again skirt them, and head to the theater.
This theater sat 6,500, and is amazing for its setting, nestled up against the huge mountain with the forest behind it – not to mention the awesome throne chairs at the base of the stage!
Back down in the main city, we visit the agora (the shops) which has more “debris field” – if someone figured out how all this debris fit together everywhere, you could probably rebuild the entire Greek and Roman empire!
It is getting darker by the minute, so we end our explorations here, and head back down the marble steps to the parking lot. We’re not chancing a deluge up there on the hillside and feel much safer in the car.
And, the weather doesn’t disappoint. As we are heading back to Kusadasi, we hit a huge, heavy rainstorm that would have soaked us to the bone had we been still wandering around Priene. Other than the rain, the drive back to Kusadasi is rather uneventful. We retrace our steps, and are doing fine until we get back into the city and realize that Alice isn’t going to be much help unless we are off the freeway. We miss the exit (because of course she thinks we are still on surface streets, not a freeway overpass) and finally end up finding a way to turn left into town – a few kilometers past where we needed to be. But, as it turns out, it’s just as simple to get back this way. A couple of turns and a couple of minutes later, and we are right back at Budget without issue. Our first driving experience in Turkey turned out perfectly. Now it’s time to wander.
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