The Bowels of Turkey

<<<previous <<<before the storm 
December 20, 1996
The tour of Turkey continues.
This is near Mersin...a huge in-ground arena (amphitheater?) where the Romans used to throw Christians and watch the lions eat them. I guess Horse racing wasn't good enough for them?
The top photo was taken from the other side of the arena...you can't really tell the size, but that "hole" is at least 300 feet deep and the structure on the top is about 60 feet tall. The next two photos are close-ups of a carving in the wall which is on the top photo but is in the bottom right part, in the shade. Cainaz and I ran down the side of this "hole" and took pictures of each standing in the canyon next to the carving. I threw away the picture of her because Miimii was so jealous I didn't want her to think I was having fun with another woman. But...I was...

Cainaz was a very, very nice lady, and I'm glad to have known her. Fair enough? We were just being kids. The carving was about 15-18 feet tall. Cool...

The Hills Are Alive...>>> With the Sound of Lions...>>> With Christians they ate for a thousand years...>>>
Children on a hill, Kids in the street, and wells for the wishing>>>
The Turks were very friendly people. Our bus drove to the top of a huge hill (about 1000 feet) overlooking the Mediterranean and we visited a 600 year-old underground Christian church. It was basically a hole in the ground (there were still Roman aquaducts over some of the roads). Myself and Paul and some of the other guys went wandering around the hills and met up with a Turkish sheep herder. He was very friendly, although he didn't know much English and we didn't speak Turkish either. Sheep are cool...

They herded right through the cities (bottom photo). As we got back to the bus to leave there was a small group of Turkish children having a great time with us taking pictures of them. It was like Christmas...I think we gave them some candy and then they ran after the bus and waved as we left (middle photo).>>>