We began our journey leaving Beyseyhir at the usual 8 am start. We visited Sagalassos en route. This ancient site has been excavated since 1990 and is amazing. Through Tony’s connection we had an archaeologist Peter who showed us around. His passion for the excavation made the site live.
From the agora to the library …every step of the way you could feel the civization. However when we reached the upper agora I said “wow”. I didn’t realise I had said it aloud and Mustaffa, the other guide said “that is why we call this the “wow” part of the tour.” When they had excavated the agora they found there was a fountain and excavating further they found it started running again with spring water.
The library has tiled floor and has now a roof over it to protect the beautiful tiled floor. Above the library is the amphitheatre …amazing to see how it has survived all those years. The site dates from about 100BC!
On arriving in Pammukale we continued our tour of Roman sites and visited the ancient city of Hierapolis and the travertine pools. Our first experience was on a shuttle bus through the ruins where we got out and explored for 5 mins at a time. This included a visit of an amphitheatre. When the bus dropped us at the pools, we opted to walk back. This was the best decision we made as the sunset was truly amazing and I enjoyed photographing the sun through the ruins.
The extent of the pools was more obvious too as we walked along the edge of the travertine.
What was amazing about the day was the difference between the two archaeological sites. Sagalassos is such a new site in archaeological diggings that since they started excavating this in 1990 it is only 27 years of work. I would love to see it in another 100 years to see what has been discovered!
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