Silifke day trip

Back in March, some of the teachers at school decided to do a day trip out to Silifke, which is about two hours from Tarsus.  A pretty great perk of working here is that our school employs a few really nice Turkish guys as drivers for the school vans.  We were really lucky to have Tuncay drive us around for the day and see some cool historical sights that are only a few hours from where we live.

Our first stop was the Silifke castle.  This fortress sits on a hill overlooking present day Silifke.  It is a "recycled" fortress, meaning that it has been used by some of the different empires that have historically controlled Silifke.  I thought it was cool that the knights of St. John used this fortress during the Middle Ages.  Those knights really got around, as I've seen their fortresses now in Bodrum, Rhodes, and now Silifke.

Outside of the Silifke fortress

Not sure what the green and blue bags are...maybe doing some digging?

Just walking and hanging out around the castle

Views from the towers

Our second stop was the sanctuary of Saint Thecla.  St. Thecla was one of the first female martyrs of Christianity in this region.  After meeting the apostle Paul in Konya, she decided to follow him, disguised as a boy to learn from his teachings.  She eventually made her way to Silifke where she lived in a cave.  From her cave home she is known to have healed people in the area.  When a bounty came out for her head, she supposedly disappeared within the cave and was never seen again.  Early Christians in this area continued to worship here and built a large basilica over the cave (now mostly destroyed).  This was a really cool place to visit and learn about this fascinating woman.

Inside the cave church

Entrance to the church

Our last stop was about 30 km away from Silifke to visit Diocaesarea, a city built in 295 B.C. with a huge temple dedicated to Zeus.  The ruins are in pretty good condition and are just tucked quietly away from the main road.  Around these ruins are the present day village of Uzuncaburc.  One of the cool aspects about Turkey is that there is just so much history and therefore ruins around, that people can just build their house next to or in some cases even part of the ancient ones.

Remains of the colonnaded street

Super impressive Temple of Zeus, used as a pagan during Greek and Roman times and then a church. 

Sarcophagus with garlands and rams

Temple of Tyche columns, 1st cent. A.D.

Anissa hanging out at the sanctuary of the temple of Tyche

Northern city gate

Theater

The necropolis was a short walk away from the other ruins, through the present day village

On our way back to Tarsus, we made one more roadside stop to take a few photos of this crazy double decker Roman mauseoleum/mansion.

After a full day of historical sight-seeing in our own backyard, we relaxed with some delicious sushi at a new place in Mersin.  It was a really beautiful March day and pretty neat to be able to explore some of the cool sights that are within driving distance of Tarsus.