From 12-19 April 1991, my ICARDA colleague, Anne, and I travelled in his little car on 2500 km roadtrip to Western Turkey during the Ramadan Eid.
I did not take journal notes and can only piece together the trip via a vague memory and a few captions on photos.
We began in Aleppo and drove the length of Turkey’s southern coast along the Mediterranean along the D400 highway.
Days 1 and 2: Aleppo to Yenkikas to Tahtalı Dağı
Day 3: Tahtalı Dağı
We climbed Tahtalı Dağı (2,366 m), which is also known as Olympus, the home of the gods. As it was early April we were pushing the season and encountered snow toward the summit. I don’t recall if we made the summit but the photos seem to indicate we got very close.
A cable car to the summit was built in 2007.
DAY 4. Marmaris
DAY 5. Bodrum
DAY 6. Aphrodisias
We speant a few hours in Aphrodisias, which was a Hellenistic Greek city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Asia Minor, today’s Anatolia in Turkey. It is located near the modern village of Geyre.
Aphrodisias was named after Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, who had here her unique cult image, the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias.
In 2017, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.
DAY 7 to 8. Return to Aleppo
On our long trip back to Aleppo, we pulled over early in the morning looking for a place to have breakfast. We asked at a carpet shop and they said the restaurant next door would open soon. In the meantime, they invited us in to see their carpets.
Several hours later and many photos and cups of tea later, Anne left. Both with newly purchased silk carpets.
