Wednesday 2nd December – Pamukkale to Afrodisias

Another day another Roman ruin, this time Afrodisias, about 70 miles by road from Pamukkale.  Much less visited than Ephesus or Hierapolis, it nevertheless has some amazingly preserved remains, such as the monumental gateway (85% of which was found and rebuilt),

the 270m long stadium (complete with its 30,000 seats),

an almost undamaged marble bouleuterion (preserved burried in the mud)

and the three story Sebasteion

(decorated with elaborate friezes; 70 of the original 190 having been recovered and are on display in the museum).

Anne was slightly freaked out by the philosopher heads, recovered from one of the Roman villas. SPOT

(By the way, Anne has told me not to put so many pictures of ruins in the blog, so I’ll try and cut down from now on.)

We camped the night in the car park of the Anatolya Restuarant, 2km from the ruins, for the princely sum of 10TL (about £4), which included our own guard dog, a talking parrot and peacocks for company.  The one downside was the bane of campsites in Greece and Turkey, the dreaded solar showers.  Having sat inside the restaurant in the warmth writing postcards until after dark we missed our hot water opportunity.  Who needs to be clean anyway? SPOT