Prien, Miletos, & Didyma, Turkey

June 1,
Today is Friday.  We are going to see three different sites, Prien, Miletos and Didyma.  Our first stop is Priene (Prien) - there are several different spellings for it.  It was one of 12 city-states settled by Greek colonists before 1000 BC.  It is one of the best preserved sites - but little visited.  It has been interesting visiting "A" rated sites versus those much less visited.  Most of the time they are equally fantastic and interesting.  But we enjoy seeing a site with only a few other people vs the ones where there are tons of tourists and you have to fight the Asians take turns posing provokingly in front of every site taking pictures of each other.  I used to be patient with them - every one should get a turn.  But after so many times of waiting 10 minutes or so for them to to their debut shots for fame - I give them a couple of minutes and then walk into the frame.  This almost always works. 

This was the stage part of the theatre.

The seating area.  The special seats are for famous people.  There is also an alter here.

 I sat in this seat.  Mike should have the photo.

As at so many other sites, structures are reused by new groups of people, new religions.  What was a temple for a pagan god is converted to a Christian church.  Below shows the addition of a pulpit - a temple converted to a church.  It has three steps. 

 More pictures of the temple

 This was a room built for politics - and other discussions by men only.  So many places were for men only.  Our guide with her umbrella.

On to the next site.  Miletus has a 15,000 seat theatre dating from AD 100. 

I loved the clouds - we have been blessed with beautiful blue skies in Turkey.

 Our last stop was the Temple of Apollo in Didyma.  Medusa heads figured big here.  The temple here was built to honor the god of prophecy and oracles.  In its prime, the temple had 108 Ionic columns, only three remain intact.

                                     

A very rare remain of a roof.