Tourist day in Side

August 9, 2023

Today was our last day of being tourists for a while. Tomorrow we head up into the hills in the direction on Konya in the center of Turkey.

We started off the day at the theater. Hellenic in design but Roman in construction (apparently) it fell a bit flat after the magnificence of the theater at Aspendos.

Restoration ongoing outside the theater.

Slightly smaller than the one at Aspendos and in much worse condition.

Then we checked out the ancient road between the theater and the nymphaeum which we had visited yesterday. It was choc-a-block with tourists but it did give a nice alternative view of the theater across the second of the two agoras in Side. Apparently the one was used for public gatherings and the other as a marketplace.

The second Agora adjacent to the theater.

A visit to the museum rounded off the morning. It's not very big but it had a few interesting items. It is housed in the ancient bath house with an outdoor display area as well.

The bath house in the background with some of the open air exhibits in the foreground.

The oldest exhibit - a 7th century BCE pillar base from the time of the Hittites.

Amongst the youngest were some Byzantine pillar bases.

In the bath house many of the exhibits were displayed in the baths themselves.

A beautiful sarcophagus with each corner supported by an image of Nike.

A skeleton at the bottom of one of the baths.

My favourite exhibit. I visited it three times.

Another swim in the Mediterranean preceded lunch. We had our final swim late in the afternoon after stocking up with food for the next two nights on the road. We have two nights of wild camping ahead of us but our real challenge is the heat and hills that need to be conquered before we get to the next real town on our route, Derebucak.

Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 139 km (86 miles)

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