Rain was smacking against the window. It was icy cold. Sitting in the dark
depths of a British University’s library in 1994, I was gazing out dreaming of
somewhere warm and exotic. Turkey was the place that lit up my imagination.
Three great things embody this country. Just four hours flight away from
international London, it has a culture which is profoundly different, distinctly
unfamiliar. A land on the very cusp of Europe and Asia, with two heads
simultaneously facing both east and west, it embodies the magic and mysticism of
the orient. Once nomads from Central Asia, the Turks were for centuries the
middlemen of the world, famed merchants uniting three continents - Europe,
Africa, and Asia, as far east as China. Today, its people are famed for their
warmth and hospitality, a gift of their nomadic ancestry and Islam’s code of
respect for strangers in a strange land.
The
second great thing about Turkey is its age. The place is steeped in history.
It’s the site of some of the very earliest cities, like Çatal Hoyuk, stretching
back 10,000 years. Ever after it was a veritable crossroads of civilisations.
When archaeologists dig in Turkey they are confronted by layers upon layers of
peoples and cultures, from Hittite fortifications to Byzantine churches. Before
I’d even set foot there, Turkey conjured up images of all the things that I
longed to see, great sun-burnt plains on which ancient battles were fought,
theatres where Greek philosophers declaimed, and the marble clad ruins of Rome’s
imperial ambitions.
It’s widely said that Turkey has more and better preserved Greek and Roman
archaeological sites than Greece and Italy combined. The landscape is simply
riddled with ruins, many of which are virtually untouched. You can literally
stroll through an olive grove and stumble upon a Greek temple still standing
proud, and have the place all to yourself. Many people say part of Turkey’s
charm is that it is like Greece was thirty years ago.
The third fantastic thing about Turkey is the landscape. About three and a
half times the size of Britain, it has almost the same population, leaving vast
areas wide, empty, and pretty much as nature intended. Add to that soaring
mountain ranges, brilliant white sunlight, and a vast coastline stretching along
three seas, the Black Sea, the Aegean, and the Mediterranean, and you have a
truly marvellous holiday destination.
I first went to Turkey eleven years ago, on a 2,000 mile walking adventure,
to retrace Alexander the Great’s footsteps from Troy to the battlefield of
Issus, where the epic warrior defeated the Persians for a second time. A five
month journey took me down the western Aegean coast past some of the giant
cities of classical history, like Ephesus, Priene, and Miletus; deep into the
interior through tiny farming villages where I was feted as an honoured guest;
and south through the peaks and valleys of the Taurus mountains, where donkeys
are still a favoured mode of transport.
A decade later and my love affair with Turkey still beats strong. While it
was walking that brought me to Turkey, today I prefer a very different way of
travelling: sailing. With some 5,178 miles of coastline, Turkey is a paradise
for cruising. Its south and west coasts offer perhaps the most spectacular
sailing in the Mediterranean, full of craggy coves and sleepy fishing villages,
bustling harbours and deserted bays shaped like giant theatres with breathtaking
vistas. Littered with antiquities, protected by law, large sections of it have
remained undeveloped, still lapped by the clear waters on which the giants of
ancient history sailed: Achilles, Cleopatra, Julius Caesar.
In places, mountains of limestone drop sheer into the sea, elsewhere pine
forested peninsulas stretch out like sinuous fingers hiding a cornucopia of
golden beaches, deep gulfs, and tiny offshore islands. With such a stunning
everchanging backdrop, I can’t think of a better way to see Turkey, to explore
its culture, discover such rich ruins, and drink in the landscape, than to set
sail on a gulet. Spared the need to constantly pack, unpack, and change hotels,
instead one travels in luxurious style. Perhaps the key thing for me is that
it’s travel the way the ancients usually did. It makes thinking about the past
altogether easier. Out on the waves, time can literally dissolve in the water,
two millennia can disappear from the mind.
A mad keen sailor, Peter Ustinov once wrote: “The sea not only sharpens a
sense of beauty and of alarm, but also a sense of history. You are confronted
with precisely the sight which met Caesar's eyes, and Hannibal's, without having
to strain the imagination by subtracting television aerials from the skyline and
filling in the gaps in the Collosseum…off the magical coast of Turkey you
rediscover what the world was like when it was empty…and when pleasures were as
simple as getting up in the morning…and every day is a journey of discovery."
Gulets are really the vessel of choice for exploring the Turkish coast.
Handbuilt from wood, usually pine from local forests, they’re often as much as
80 feet long and sleep between six and 16 guests in attractive double or twin
cabins. They tend to have three or four capable and helpful crew members,
captain, cook, and one or two mates, who do all the work allowing passengers to
relax. Most gulets have a spacious main saloon, a large rear deck where meals
are served, and sun loungers on the roof at the front. The majority operate for
the most part under motor, but some are also designed for proper sailing. When
the sails go up, and the engine turns silent, you have the same soundtrack as
Odysseus on Homer’s “wine dark sea”, the slapping of water on the side of the
ship, and the wind rushing through the canopy.
Aboard a gulet, one travels in the footsteps of ancient Greek pilgrims en
route to an oracular temple like Didyma, or in the wake of Byzantine merchants
carrying a cargo of glass, like the Serce Limani shipwreck now in Bodrum museum,
or like Roman tourists on their way to see the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, one
of the seven ancient wonders of the world.
I remember the first time I visited the ancient city of Knidos, a sensational
site for maritime trade perched at the very tip of the Datca peninsula, between
Bodrum and Marmaris. We sailed and moored up in the city’s old commercial
harbour, just as merchants from Athens, Rhodes, and cities right across the
Mediterranean would have done over 2,000 years ago. My fellow travellers and I
gawped in wonder, as we eased into the ancient port, and its monuments took
shape: the small theatre, the rows of houses, the miles of fortifications
climbing up a steep ridge. We anchored where countless vessels had previously –
large cargo ships, local fishing boats, perhaps even some fighting triremes.
Even today the ancient mooring stones where they tied up are still visible,
projecting out from the harbour walls.
One of the defining characteristics of a gulet trip is the back to nature
appreciation of the simple things: the clean fresh air, the canopy of stars at
night, the time to lounge about and read. Swimming in the crystal waters of the
celebrated turquoise coast is of course one of the frequent highlights, and
there are usually windsurfers, kayaks, and snorkelling gear available for the
slightly more adventurous.
Alongside the archaeology and the relaxed atmosphere, one of the greatest
delights is the food. Turkish food is justly famed, often ranked as one of the
three pre-eminent cuisines in the world alongside French and Chinese. The focus
is all about simple but incredibly fresh local ingredients, often grown
organically or raised free range. You only have to taste a tomato in Turkey to
see the difference. It’s surprising how even on the smallest gulets, out of the
tiniest of galleys, the boat’s cook can produce such a variety of fresh local
delicacies.
A Turkish breakfast typically consists of bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives,
cheese, eggs, yoghurt and honey. Lunch and dinner are usually one or two main
courses, accompanied by salads and mezes, Turkey’s speciality starters,
including cacik (a garlic and cucumber yoghurt), biber dolma (stuffed peppers),
and sigara borek (white cheese and herbs in a cigarette shaped filo pastry
wrap). Fruit is a mainstay item, and ranges through the seasons from cherries
and strawberries, to melon and figs.
But with so many miles of coast where do you choose to sail? Three areas are
particular favourites of mine. First is the ancient region of Lycia, a giant
bulge into the Mediterranean on Turkey’s underbelly. Situated between Fethiye
and Antalya, it’s an area oozing with myths and brimming with archaeology. Here,
behind the soaring Taurus mountains, an extraordinary culture and a fiercely
independent people developed. Their funerary architecture, unlike anything else
in the world, still litters their once prosperous ports.
This was the fabled land of the Chimaera, a dreaded monster from Greek
mythology, described as early as Homer: “She was of divine race, not of men, in
the fore part a lion, at the rear a serpent, and in the middle a goat, breathing
forth in terrible manner the force of blazing fire.”
The legend probably owes its origins to an extraordinary site high up in the
hills. Sacred since time immemorial, it was the main sanctuary of the port city
of Olympus. Here flames leap out of the ground, a phenomenon arising from a
subterranean pocket of natural gas which spontaneously ignites on contact with
the outside air.
Not only is a gulet cruise the best way to explore such an essentially
maritime civilisation, sometimes it’s the only way. Even now, there are tiny
coastal villages which
are accessible only by sea. One favourite is the sleepy hamlet of Kale, on the
southern tip of Lycia. Above a few piers where small fishing boats jostle, rises
a ramshackle series of houses made from ancient stones. Dominating the entire
scene is a mighty Ottoman fortress built 550 years ago to overpower the
Christian knights of Rhodes and secure the all important sea lanes between
Constantinople and Jerusalem. The castle, however, was a latecomer. 1,800 years
before, a small town called Simena was perched here. Its small Greek style
theatre sits slap in the middle of the Ottoman castle, and all through the
village are tombs hewn into the rock, and sarcophagi standing ten feet tall.
A second great area for sailing is west of Lycia, the ancient region of
Caria, between Bodrum and Fethiye. This was the ancient realm of Mausolus, a
powerful dynast 2,400 years ago. A strategically vital region, densely pack in
antiquity with rich cities, it was jealously guarded and sought after. Alexander
the Great liberated it from Persia, Rhodes sought to annexe it into her own
empire, and the legacy of Crusader castles still speaks of the epic battle that
raged along this coast between rival religions, Christianity and Islam. Today,
there remains a wonderful blend of architectural and historic marvels. The
exquisite temple tombs of Caunos, carved into a cliff face by masons dangling
from ropes; the monumental city of Knidos, famed for Praxiteles’ infamous statue
of Aphrodite, the first female nude in history; and Halicarnassus itself, site
of the fabled mausoleum and the mighty fortress of St. Peter.
A third glorious area for cruising, is ancient Ionia, to the north of Bodrum.
Along this stretch of coast developed a civilisation of quite exceptional
brilliance. In the centuries before Alexander the Great, the dynamic cities of
Ionia helped lay the foundations of Greek literature, science, and philosophy,
never mind architecture.
Under Rome, these cities became ever more rich, prosperous, and beautiful - full
of the finest temples, theatres and markets that money could buy. The highlights
are plentiful: from the pretty little harbour of Myndos, where Cassius fled
after murdering Julius Caesar; to the marvellously preserved Hellenistic city of
Priene, where the houses, streets, and public buildings are laid out across a
hillside in a perfect grid; and of course, Ephesus, capital of Roman Asia. This
was one of the very first cities in the world to have street lighting. The site
is magnificent, a cornucopia of colonnaded streets, agoras, baths, private
villas, a theatre for 28,000, and an extraordinary library.
If you fancy exploring some of the world’s finest ancient wonders, spring or
autumn is the best time to go. April and early May sees Turkey decked out with a
stunning display of wild flowers. From the end of May through the start of June
the sea becomes swimmable before the summer heat scorches, while September
through October is perfect for leisurely bathing.
Copyright Peter Sommer 2006
Peter Sommer runs a specialist travel company,
Peter Sommer Travels offering
archaeological tours and cruises as well as crewed yacht charters in Turkey. The
gulets he uses
are all handcrafted from wood in Turkey:
AAn archaeologist and documentary producer he has worked on many acclaimed BBC/PBS/CNN
TV series including In the footsteps of Alexander the Great, and Commanding
Heights: the battle for the world economy. His most recent series, Tales from
the Green Valley, about life on a Welsh farm in the year 1620, was shown to rave
reviews on BBC2 in the UK in 2005.
Peter Sommer
has had travel articles published in newspapers incl. The Times (UK), The
Brisbane Sunday Mail & The South China Morning Post, & magazines incl. Cruise
Magazine, Good Holiday Guide, Yacht Vacations Magazine, The Travel Magazine, The
European Magazine etc. He is a member of the Outdoor Writers' Guild, the UK's
best established guild of professional outdoor & travel writers.
To contact Peter email info[at]petersommer.com or Tel +44 1600 861929
