A hazy morning this morning prevented us from seeing the great views of the hills and the sea around Izmir.

Theatre at Pergamon

A short drive took us to Pergamon, an ancient settlement fortified by Greeks and Romans high on the hills of modern day Bergama. The drive up was scenic but a bit dodgy – the locals are going to ruin that experience by building a modern cable car that will ferry passengers to the top – instead of allowing buses to drive up. Makes some sense – but the tour company indicated that they aren’t pleased about it – and will probably amend the itinerary to include some other sites that are “just as good”.

The site has been very tastefully restored – one of the main attractions – Trajan’s temple has had a corner restored – so you can appreciate the size of the structure. The sub-structure for the temple was impressive too – we were able to walk underneath it and view the amazing arches that were built (and are still standing) to support the massive temple. The amphitheatre was the next stop. It is an unusual shape – most of the Roman theatres are semi-circular, this one is a lot short of that. It is also incredibly steep – so those with bad knees and a fear of heights were warned not to walk down it! There are the remains of several other temples at the site, notably the Temple of Dionysus at the bottom of the theatre. Most of the original ruins (the valuable parts anyway) are now in Berlin.

Asceplion was next on the tour, which was a notable health spa come hospital of sorts in its day.

A pretty good lunch followed by a long drive, led us to Troy – where we scrambled to climb the horse as fast as possible. If you look closely, you can see Neil and Karla in the top story of the horse.

Neil and Karla inside the Trojan Horse

A quick whip around the site that shows the ruins of 9 different civilisations dating from 3000 BC – all built on top of each other.

South Gate at Troy VI

We would have liked a little more time to comprehend and take in what we were seeing – but the tour must go on (that – and it was very windy and a bit unpleasant). A quick stop to view the Gallipolli peninsular ended our touring for the day.

An extremely early start will greet us tomorrow – as we aim to get to ANZAC cove, then back to Istanbul in reasonable time.