An Athenian Diary

44

The Athenian Diary Goes to Turkey

An Excursion to Karia

April 19-27, 2004

For many years now I have been working on and off on a major book on the ancient city of Mylasa (modern Milas). The book rests on a mass of material, most especially the texts of unpublished and mostly lost inscriptions, given to me some years ago by Jeanne Robert, and collected, in large part, by her husband Louis Robert in the 1930s. Mylasa was located in a region of ancient Asia Minor called Karia, which lies today in modern southwestern Turkey.

My colleague Riet (below, at Beçin), who teaches at University College, London, has also been working for a long time on a Karian project, related to the city of Stratonikeia, which was Mylasa's eastern neighbor in antiquity. We decided to visit Karia together, and after various frantic email exchanges and coordination, managed to arrange a week in mid-April. Our group was rounded out by Riet's husband David, a mediaeval historian of extraordinary patience with respect to looking at antiquities, and Riet's graduate student Robert (together at right in the garden of the Milas Museum). We stayed in Milas the whole time and drove a rented 4x4 (see below).

I have organized this entry in the Diary on the same principles as the entries for trips to the Nile and the Western Desert of Egypt -- that is to say, below you will find a day-by-day index of the trip; click on the date to see the page for that day. (Except that here I treat the two travel days, April 19 and 27, on this page rather than separately.) However, since some readers may be interested not in our whole itinerary but on particular sites, I have also included an alphabetical listing by ancient name, linked to the page where the site is discussed. This listing is not complete; that is to say, it does not include observations not associated with some particular archaeological site.

Monday, April 19 -- Athens to Bodrum

Perhaps I missed the announcement, but I didn't realize till it was almost too late that the gate for my flight had been switched. In combination with some other circumstances -- limited staff at security, so that the line to the gate was long and slow; a smirk from the woman at the information desk when I asked about the gate for Turkish Air; the exile of the check-in window for my flight to the farthest corner of the airport; the absence of a direct flight to Bodrum; the fact that there was only one flight a day between Athens and Istanbul on Turkish Air -- this inconvenience made me suspect that it wasn't unintentional. Recent events have seemed to promise an improvement in Greek-Turkish relations; one can only hope that greater convenience of travel will result too. But despite the inconveniences and the wait in the airport -- where I met up with my companions -- we got to Bodrum fine, picked up our car, and installed ourselves after the short drive from Bodrum airport to Milas in our hotel.

Tuesday, April 20 -- Milas, Beçin, Sinuri

Wednesday, April 21 -- Olymos, Euromos, Chalketor, Hydai, Iasos (I)

Thursday, April 22 -- Back to Iasos (II), Kindye, Bargylia, Kassosos

Friday, April 23 -- An Interlude in Milas -- Atatürk's Birthday, Kazagaç, Mal Tepesi, Lagina, Alabanda,    Alinda

Saturday, April 24 -- Hydissos, Keramos, Akbük

Sunday, April 25 -- Labraunda, From Labraunda to Alinda -- The Road Over the Mountain, Amyzon, From Akmescit to Selimiye -- The Road over the Beşparmak

Monday, April 26 -- Back to Milas, Herakleia

Tuesday, April 27 -- Home to Athens

Early Tuesday morning we departed the hotel for the airport. The place was almost deserted. It's early yet in the season -- one can imagine what the terminal must be like in high summer, when charter jets disgorge hundreds of British, German, and French tourists by the hour, and the busses ready to swoop them off to their luxury beach-side hotels stand spewing fumes on the pavement outside. But it's a pleasant airport -- well-designed, well-lit through the glass roof, spacious waiting halls. One could only ask that the coffee be priced at something less than you'd expect in the waiting-room on Mars.

The flight back to Istanbul was uneventful, followed by the usual endless wait "in transit" in the lounge in the Istanbul airport. Riet and Robert emptied out a couple of duty free shops; then their flight left and I was left to ponder my fate till the evening, when the one flight back to Athens departed, and I got home as the sun was setting.

Alphabetic Listing of Sites

 Akbük, Alabanda, Alinda, Amyzon, Bargylia, Beçin, Beşparmak, Chalketor, Euromos, Herakleia, Hydai, Hydissos, Iasos (I), Iasos (II), Kassosos, Keramos, Kindye, Labraunda, Lagina, Mal Tepesi, Milas, Milas Museum, Olymos, Sinuri.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

Where we stayed, who helped us

Our digs in Milas were located in the Sürücü Oteli, located on Atatürk Bulvari 10 (telephone: 0252-512-4001; fax: 512-2548). It's not luxury -- hot water is an intermittent affair (best after 8 am) and the staff had to be told they were out of Nescafe (the only coffee available at breakfast). But it's the best option in Milas (I have stayed in other places, and believe me, you're better off here), and, at least for the next few years (assuming Turkey finally gets admitted into the EU, a proposition however that seems to have receded into the distant future now that Greek Cyprus has a veto), a bargain.

Without a 4x4 we would have had problems negotiating some of the roads we took -- especially on our wrong turn in the Latmian wilderness. The car was delivered and picked up with admirable efficiency at the Bodrum airport by Eros Travel -- ARC Travel Agency, whom you can email. Though their main office is in Antalya (Perge Bulvari 116, 07200 Antalya, phone: 001-90-242-31-20-444; fax: 001-90-242-31-25-987), they seem to deliver and pick up cars anywhere in southwestern Turkey. If you rent a car be forewarned: they are far more expensive than a comparable car in the USA (and gas is a lot more expensive, too).

Dinner every night in Milas took place at the lovely, unpretentious Kalbur Restaurant, just down the street from our hotel. The food was always the same -- kebabs, chicken, koftes grilled to perfection on the open-air grill, French fries incomparable in their deliciousness, salads, wine for the others and a coke for me, and the indescribably scrumptious Turkish bread, the best bread I've ever eaten in my life.

I flew from Athens to Bodrum with Turkish Air. Turkish Air is a wonderful airline, with cheerful staff and good food. The problem lies with the scheduling -- the only flight from Athens to Istanbul (through which every flight goes) landed me there hours and hours before my connecting flight to Bodrum. As a "transit passenger" I lingered in a limbo of duty-free shops and sanitized food courts, unable to hop a taxi into town, trying to find a comfortable place to read. Eventually I paid $20 to hang out in a "private" lounge run by one of the big Turkish banks, where at least I got on the internet and was able to deal with some days' worth of mail. The inconveniences I suspect are to be attributed more to lingering Greek-Turkish tensions than poor planning. Only after it was all over did Edie and I realize I should simply have flown to Kos and taken the boat across the narrow strait to Bodrum -- next time!

May 16, 2004

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