The destination for this morning was Aphrodisias, an ancient site from 5,800 BC. Most of what we saw on the site was the Roman ruins which dated similar age to Heirapolis or Sagalassos. It was an incredible 2 hours of wandering around. The wonderful thing is that the finds from the excavations are on site in the museum and having just looked a the different ruins one can picture where these statues etc belonged.

From stadiums to amphitheatres and council rooms…the site was never ending. They are currently excavating an agora with a large pools and fountains. it will be truly spectacular when completed.

A very hot day that reached at least 40. Vulcan is doing well but without air conditioning other than windows we kept making sure we drank lots of water!

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!

Visited a Caravanassi in Sultanhani which was amazing. One could see the indoor and outdoor areas that both animals and people stayed and in the centre of the walled area was a mosque. As we arrived at the caravanassi, the mayor of Sultanhani came over and introduced himself to us, inviting us to have tea with him. This was delightful and photos were taken as he gave each car a small town banner and photos were taken of him with the cars.

We then drove into Konya through pretty countryside where we visited the mausoleum of another famous poet. Quite elaborate but interesting.

Arriving at Beysehir, we were impressed with how pretty the town was on the lake. Sunset was magnificent and a stroll before and after dinner made a great ending to a busy day.

We woke up early (and I mean early) as we boarded the bus for the short ride to where our balloons were waiting at 4.15am!

Wow is all I can say for the balloon ride. Our pilot who had been doing this for 7 years took the balloon with 8 people in it up to 1200 metres. One of our group  asked how high the balloon could go and all he answered was 1200 m  so we worked out this is the maximim allowed. There must have been over 100 balloons in the air the entire time so as well as going with the wind it was necessary to avoid others. For the first part of the trip we soared high and watched the sun rise. Then he took us down lower and we went down Pigeon valley and Love valley where we could see more closely the caves and fairy chimneys as the tall rock outcrops are called.

For both Ian and I it was our first balloon experience and what a place to do it. It was truly remarkable. While others are now eager to try ballooning elsewhere, I am not sure anything could up up to this experience. I enjoyed the high soaring and Ian preferred the lower ballooning where he could see more and we were going beside the rock formations.

After the balloon ride in the morning and breakfast, we headed our for a tour of the local area. Scenic spots to view the fairy chimneys and another spot where different rocks formation make the imagination work overtime.
The underground city was amazing.  The tunnels and rooms, protected from intruders was fascinating. We then visited a family ceramic factory where we saw the process of making and then painting the ceramic pieces. Very labour intensive

In the afternoon we visited the Goreme open air theatre which had some incredible churches carved out of the rocks.

Visited a carpet factory where we were shown some weavers at work. However it was a very hard sell session and we all walked away with no purchases.

We took Vulcan for a drive late afternoon to get a photo of her in front of some of the rock formations.