A

namur

 

April 9-10, 2002













s2o0410-01
Our Hotel in Anamur

We arrived in the town of Anamur late in the afternoon after a wonderful drive along the coast from Alanya. Soon after we left the tourist resorts of Alanya behind, the road started to climb, hugging the cliffs and hanging over a sheer drop to the water. The sun was shining but the air was cool and so with the windows open we were happy as sandboys and girls. Every so often we would pull off the road, just to enjoy the view. Here and there, the sea had carved deep holes in the cliffs and the water in them was every shade of turquoise you can imagine.

We half expected to find resort hotels like those in Alanya, but decided anyway to stay in the older part of town inland a couple of miles. The sun had just set as we curb-crawled the streets and came upon the Hotel Saraya. For some reason it appealed to us and so we stopped and quickly took a room. It was very simple, but clean and very cheap. And, it included breakfast that turned out to be a typical Turkish hotel breakfast that we both loved: lost of fresh bread, goat-cheese, olives, cucumbers, boiled eggs, and hot tea. What more could one ask?





s2o0410-07
Anamur Castle

The next morning we drove east out of town towards the castle and were rewarded by being the only tourists around. The main road runs right by the castle, which is between the road and the sea. The castle is like something out of a kid's fairy tale. You can just imagine women in long dresses and tall pointy hats standing on the battlements waiting for their knights in shining armor. We enjoyed an hour or so wandering in and around the place wherever it was safe to go. Having climbed up to the top of one wall, we looked over and found a Turkish woman with her children and a small flock of goats obviously enjoying the lush grass in the shade of the castle walls. From another part of the castle we had access to the water and spent a few minutes watching the waves. Truly a dream castle.


s2o0410-19
Friendly Guide to Anamur's Mosque

By mid-morning we were on our way back to Anamur city and spent a half hour checking out the beach, which was a bit of a sad and deserted place. It had a nice beach fronted by private homes that seemed mostly empty. Perhaps they would fill up on weekends. On the whole, though the place looked run-down especially compared to the glitz and bright lights of Alanya. Back in the main town, we stopped by the mosque and met the man in the photo who told us some of the problems Anamur had attracting tourists with the nearest airport in Alanya, three hours drive away along a rather narrow and dangerous road. Without an airport close by, the developers weren't willing to invest money and so Anamur seems destined to remain a backwater for the foreseeable future. That was sad for the people of Anamur, but a boon for us who got to experience the castle in peace and quiet and to enjoy a small taste of non-tourist Turkey.










s2o0410-30
Anamurium Necropolis (Cemetery)

After we left Anamur to head back west, we kept our eyes peeled for signs to Anemurium, the Graeco-Roman-Byzantine pre-cursor to the modern city. We had seen the sign on the way into town and were curious to see the site. It did not disappoint. Our first exploration was of the necropolis, an extensive graveyard that climbed a hill on the outside of the main site. There wasn't much of the necropolis that was intact and what there was was mostly hidden in a profusion of . wildflowersHow can you not fall in love with a country as beautiful as this? We clambered around for a half hour until hunger pangs drove us back down the hill to the car park and to the museum snack bar to sit on their great balcony overlooking part of the site and the water beyond and eat a quick lunch.

The site overlooked the sea, of course, and like so many others had a small odeon and remnants of other buildings including a Byzantine church that was located right on the beach. After our lunch we spent a couple of hours exploring the site, climbing up from the odeon to the clifftop to get fabulous views across the bay to Anamur castle in the distance. But time was running out and we still hoped to make a detour to Antioch Ad Cragum before getting back to Alanya so we had to drag ourselves away. If you are planning a vacation in Alanya and want a nice outing, rent yourselves a car and follow in our footsteps. We highly recommend it.

s2o0410-28
Wildflower Field at Anamurium




Updated September 9, 2004