Turkish Tour

We have been on holiday (again!),  this time a quick tour of ancient sites in Turkey (Ephesus, Troy and Pergamon), the Gallipoli peninsula and some of the cemeteries and memorials from the Gallipoli campaign of World War I, and finally a couple of days in Istanbul.  We had a great time, and plan to go back to Istanbul.    Here is a tiny and fairly random selection of some of the hundreds of photos that John took while we were there.

Relief of Nike (Victory) at Ephesus

Storks nesting on a minaret, seen from the Church of St John at Ephesus

The theatre at Pergamon and site of the Pergamon altar, now in Berlin, marked by trees

Inside the dome of Hagia Sophia

The Blue Mosque from a window of Hagia Sophia

The Basilica Cistern, Istanbul

The Baghdad Pavilion at the Topkapi Palace

  

In Istanbul, we saw two of the world's great buildings, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and at Ephesus, we saw the remains of one of the seven Wonders of the (ancient) World.  When I was a child we had a circular jigsaw of the 7 Wonders of the World, and I did it several times, so I know them by heart.  Ephesus is the first of the seven sites that I have visited, though since there is only one (reconstructed) column left standing of the Temple of Diana, it is not very wonderful these days.  (But it did have storks nesting on top, which made it more interesting.)   

I didn't take any knitting with me - there wasn't time for it in the tour schedule.  It wasn't a restful holiday at all, in fact, but a great experience even so.