http://heritage-key.com/blogs/ann/sagalassos-archaeological-project-digs-oldest-roman-baths-asia-minor

Interesting video from Turkish TV channel about the excavation and restoration of the ancient city of Sagalassos

and a very useful website that covers a lot on this city http://www.sagalassos.be/

If you can't go to the Burdur museum ... it can come to you

Just recently found this very interesting website of the Burdur Museum which features an online tour. It shows all their collections (including even the depot) of artifacts found in ancient cities of Sagalassos, Kibyra and Kremna. Something that especially drew my attention was a statute of a couple (husband and wife possibly) lying down very similar to the famous Etruscan married couple now exhibited at Louvre.

Etruscan couple at Louvre

Kybirian couple from Burdur

Not a very good picture I know but if I go there in person I might be able to post it online. Meanwhile if you're interested go to http://www.burdurmuzesi.gov.tr/Sanal%20Tur/english/a22.htm and choose Front of Kybira from a drop-down menu. I am definitely not an expert but this is the first time I see a statue like this anywhere on the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire (modern Turkey :)

Step back in history and enjoy the theatre like ancients did

Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival starts on the 9th of June in Antalya.

Details can be found on this website http://www.aspendosfestival.gov.tr/index_e.html

Aspendos Theatre

Museums I must see!!!

Croesus whose name equals wealth in English was a Lydian king.  Wether he and his wealth really existed is debatable but I definitely must see the Karun Treasure which was stolen, smuggled out of Turkey and then finally returned. Apparently it is now in display in Uşak Museum. Some of it is on the photos below:

Another museum or more a collection that is a must-see is the so-called ''Elmalı treasure'' which includes 1,900 silver coins as well as some extremely rare decadrachms (now on display at the Antalya Museum). Some of it is on the photos below:

This goes to show - always research the collections of the museums you are going to visit! 

Speaking of which as soon as I have time I will post photos from the Selçuk Archeological Museum which includes finds at Ephesus. Amazing stuff! :-)

A Byzantine name for a modern child?

 

This is not very big news but I thought quite an interesting one. Mylene Klass former pop-band singer and recently a ''Talking Movies'' presenter decided to call her newborn daughter Hero. I found it strange but apparently Hero and Leander is a Byzantine myth, relating the story of Hērō (Greek: Ἡρώ, pron. hay-RAW (ancient) and like "hero" in English), a priestess of Aphrodite who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Dardanelles, and Leander (Greek: Λέανδρος, Léandros), a young man from Abydos on the opposite side of the strait. Leander fell in love with Hero and would swim every night across the Hellespont to be with her. Hero would light a lamp at the top of her tower to guide his way.

Succumbing to Leander's soft words, and to his argument that Aphrodite, as goddess of love, would scorn the worship of a virgin, Hero allowed him to make love to her. This routine lasted through the warm summer. But one stormy winter night, the waves tossed Leander in the sea and the breezes blew out Hero's light, and Leander lost his way, and was drowned. Hero threw herself from the tower in grief and died as well. (taken from Wikipedia).

For some time I thought that Leander's Tower is Kızkulesi in Istanbul, but is it really or is it just a marketing trick to lure more tourists?

Lycia

http://www.lycianfederation.co.uk/