This morning we had breakfast overlooking the pool at our Bodrum hotel then boarded the bus for the short drive to the Mausolus monument (mentioned in yesterday’s blog). There is nothing left of it above ground level, however a scale model on display gives an indication of its size – 45 metres high and each side is about 20 metres long. The actual burial chamber, just below the current ground level, is about six metres square, and when you consider that Mausolus was cremated, they did go to a lot of trouble for a couple of hundred grams of ash!
We then headed off, back inland a little and climbed up into the mountains, which provided us with a spectacular view over the water when we again neared the coast, and eventually arrived at our destination, Fethiye (pronounced Fetya), a city based on the site of the ancient Lycian city of Telmessos. It became part of the Persian Empire in 547BCE and has been ruled by the Byzantine and Ottoman empires. It has also been known as Makre and was only named Fethiye in 1934. Ruins of 4th century BCE tombs carved into the hillside overlooking the town can be seen and it has the remains of a 2nd century CE theatre, which unfortunately we did not get to see.
Fethiye is a tourist mecca and as we walked along the edge of the Aegean Sea for a couple of kilometres from our hotel, we passed literally hundreds of cruise boats, yachts and small trawlers. We also strayed away from the waterfront to stroll through the narrow alleyways of shops, including a section adorned, overhead, with a colourful display of open umbrellas. It is a very orderly town, with attractive waterfront parks featuring fountains, statues of ballerinas and a war memorial obelisk.
As the sun was setting we sat down at the water’s edge in the balmy evening air for a delicious three-course meal of soup, scrumptious fish casserole and salad, followed by dessert then, after a fascinating chat with our Canadian and South African fellow-travellers, retired for the night.
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