Post 6: Adana Road trip 1: Castle Day

Blog 6:  Adana Road trip 1: Castle Day

Tuesday November the 6^th

Adana is surrounded by some of the best ancient tourist attractions in Turkey and nobody seems to recognise this. We drove some 80 to 90 km’s outside of the city and visited 3 Castles and passed so many more. Truly there are some significant ruins and sites to be seen if you dare to venture a little outside the city. 

 It is amazing to me why there aren’t many tourist operators to take advantage of this fact. Our journey was also to visit family, but the castles was our first objective.

Along the way we past also some phenomenal sites and would have been great to stop and take some pictures of the awesome scenery. But Aylin’s father was on a mission and when the views opened between the trees, the car seem to accelerate with new purpose to reach our first Castle destination! Lol

One scene I regret not taking a picture was distant snow-capped mountains with a beautiful little village at the base, all beside a beautiful green river of glass. There was pictureous mosque with its minaret towers in the centre reflecting across the river. The village reflected perfectly also, serene and peaceful! It was a picture post card photo opportunity that I knew would not come back. But alas, I could not bring the camera to the car window in time! Que sera sera!

We did stop once for petrol, 10 litres for 50 lira!!!! OMG. And we did have to slow down for the goats, sheep or cattle to cross roads, but Aylin’s father finely navigated these obstacles  as any expert Turkish city driver does. (each time I turned the camera on to take a picture we were past the obstacles! Lol But I did get a couple of pictures)

 



Karatepe – Aslantas Castle

Karatepe – Aslantas Castle or Azatiwataya Castle is about 7oo to 800BC. Assyrien / Hittite Empire

The castle (in the outskirts of Taurus Mountains) controlled a main caravan road (Phoenician supply and trade road, ancient highway) and it also controlled the Ceyhan River (ancient Pyramos River) where cedar wood was shipped on rafts to the sea for the construction of ships. You can’t see it all because of the forest but I walked on the walks, huge! 4 meters wide with fortified rectangular bastions in regular intervals.

What’s great about this castle is not only the fantastic sculptures, but the wonderful and detailed bilingual texts inscriptions left mostly in tact. Because of these bilingual text found here, these stones at this castle have been compared to the Rosetta stone which Napoleon’s expert “Champollion” was able to decipher the Egyptian Hieroglyphs after he conquered Egypt in the 1790’s

A great castle, we took a nature walk around it and visited the museum.

2: Hemite (Amuda) Castle

 Believed also to be built around 800 to 700 BC This castle also has additions from other empires after the Hittites like the Romans.

This was pretty impressive and a steep walk amongst cactus and rocks to get up to the summit. I was first up of course as the most enthusiastic of us all, but little Michael would have kept up if he could. He certainly made the walk look easy. We had to hold him back.

From the summit of this castle we could enjoy the spectacular views of the village we just drove through and the river beyond. Not sure of the Castles significance because we were the only ones there and no signs other than the one in the pictures. But it does have commanding views of the plains, no doubt more trade routs, and views of the river and any possible villages from those times.

It was too hard and dangerous to get into the castle, (steep fall!) do I declined having a health fear of heights!  But I was able to climb up onto one of the fortified bastions or towers. Wow so great views, and so steep a drop off!

Castle 3 was Kastabala (Hierapolis) Ruins

(B.C. 175-164)

 This is not just a castle (which was so high and dangerous to climb we just couldn’t go up to it) but it’s also a city. A great city and it surrounds the castle. Having been to Ephesus in 2010 I found these ruins to be comparable. Ironically this city used to send delegations to Ephesus which was more the heart of government of the time.

They still have a great deal to excavate at this site but already of the main entry road with its prestige columns gives you an insight into the wonders to come. (They have excavated about 1/3 of the main entry road I guess.)

The amphitheatre and baths and many ongoing excavations are all very impressive. I am sure this could be a major Turkish tourist attraction in the years to come… if they realise its value!! Something they don’t seem to do very well in the country regions in Turkey. (graffiti over castles, stones taken to build their houses and general disregard for historical sites in general)

The Kastabala ruins have also been heavily damaged by earth quakes over the centuries. But what’s left is still very impressive. There is simply ruins and pottery and you name it, everywhere!! You walk over it, every square meter there are things to be found. It’s like nothing I have ever seen!! Incredible! I could spend a life time at this place under covering it all. It’s a must see and should be on the Adana tourist map. Just Incredible!!!!

 After the castles we went to a village and a city to meet with more family. All very nice but by then my camera charge on both cameras was over.

We also passed a forth Castle, the “Snake Castle” Purhapse the most Impressive of all. We went there in previous years so not this time. But I did take a photo from the road as we drove past.

And there endth the castle day!