"Termessos or Termessus (ancient name) July 2004" by Alikatt

Termessos is the ancient city of the warlike Pisidians, a race that populated the mountains north of Pamphylia. They called themselves the Solymi, after Mt. Solymus what the Turks call now Gulluk Dag. What an awesome, wild place more than 1000 meters above sea level! Its beauty and serenity is unbelievable. It does take patience and determination to hike the entire place since visible signs aren't well placed. But it you love ancient ruins, this won't disappont esp. when you reach the Hellenistic theater (according to the Blue Guide). I stood there, my breath taken away by what remains today. The Psidians would be wealthy today had their race survived. Location, location, location. Its location high up among the clouds makes it jaw-dropping and priceless.

I could have stayed here until sunset but we had to be on schedule so we hiked down after 2.5 hours in Termessos. I have been saved and rescued many times by this man, my former boyfriend. We had such fun exploring this and many sites of Turkey. He also saw these ruins for the first time too so it was awesome to 'discover' these important ancient sites with someone seeing them for the first time as well. We were just in awe of everything.

The view's great from up here but I really have to go down now...I mean NOW! I managed to climb up there by myself but actually needed help going down. I didn't want to miss a step (some stones have eroded over hundreds of years and some been toppled) and hurt myself in the process so I had to be rescued again by my gallant companion.

To me it says" take me home if you can lift me" but really I had no idea what the inscriptions meant. I wish I had an archeologist on hand to explain its meaning. Where are you Buket?

Could it be Greek? But the Psidians are not Greek...
There was no one there but a lone museum staff at the foot of the pathway but he didn't speak a word of English either.

This must have been a small but magnificent temple in those days. It is sad the way the columns just lay there as if they are waiting to be put back into place. It must have taken hundreds of men and countless manhours to bring these stones to to this mountaintop and construct these once-magnificent buildings. Why isn't anyone undertaking this reconstruction project and why is everthing just laying there exposed to the elements? How could Turkey just leave such beautifully carved stones lay in ruin, just waiting to be swallowed by the earth and its vegetation one day? I hope this would this one day soon be reconstructed. What a beautiful but pitiful sight.

It is believed that a dignitary (and maybe two others who wanted to be buried near him) was buried in this tomb and these niches were for offerings to the dead.

I noticed the intricate carving of the stone above this arch along one of the remaining walls and I wanted to capture it. The theater itself was constructed in Greek style (although the Pisidians were neither Greek nor Lycians) . Back then, it could seat 4,000 spectators.

It felt like I was trampling on history...at least Alexander the Great didn't step on this very path. He diverted his vast army and stayed in the lowlands. Lucky Psidians.