Land of the Phrygians

On Saturday we embarked on a two day trip with the first day mostly devoted to the sights of ancient Phrygia.  This area is west of Ankara and lies mostly between Eskisehir (to the north) and Afyon (to the south).  It is very rural and the sights are scattered throughout and little visited.  Our team consisted of intrepid history lovers Randy, Alice, Mehmet and Claudio.  Alice and Mehmet had planned the route while Randy drove.

First stop was Seyitgazi.  Devoted readers of this blog will recall that Alice and Randy visited here before during our trip to Eskisehir.  However, Mehmet and Claudio had not seen the final resting place of hero (and reportedly 13 feet tall) Seyit Battal Gazi.  It was a beautiful spring day (though very windy) and we enjoyed the location a lot.

Randy, Claudio and Mehmet check out the hook in the arch ceiling where supposedly the giant Seyit Battal Gazi tied his horse

Another instance of reuse of classical building pieces

Mehmet shows Claudio the small rooms in the mosque where the monks (if that is the right word) would reside as part of their entry to the monastery (or the Islamic equivalent of that)

The Byzantine brick work inside the mosque

The courtyard of the complex

A Christian baptism font in one of the buildings

A lion guards the entry

The interesting chimneys of the complex

Next was a trip along a back road to the big sight in the area - the Phrygian capital city of Midas Sehri (Midas City) also called Yazilikaya (written on stone).  En route we stopped at two recommended monuments from the immortal John Ash.  The first was Gerdek Kaya, an impressive tomb set up in a cliff side.  It may date from the Greek/Roman period or be even older.  The second was the Monument of Arezastis which dates from the same period as the Midas Sehri (around 6th century BC) and was a little hidden by the pine forest in front of it.  It was impressive also with writing from the Phryians that Claudio said looked like Etruscan writing.

Gerdek Kaya from the road

We head up to the steps leading to the tomb

View from the tomb

The columns are mostly reconstructions - Alice and Mehmet enjoy the view

The carvings above are all original and are in quite good condition

Inside roof of the tomb - all rock

Randy, Alice and Mehmet in the tomb "porch" area

The Arezastis Monument - also called Small Stone with Writing as opposed to the Stone with Writing at the Midas Sehri (see below)

Arezastis Monument from the road

The monument

Carving details with writing similar to Etruscan's below and above

Randy waves from the wooded hillside you climb to reach the monument

We then reached the village of Yazilikaya and ate a bit at a cafe run by Turks who came from the Caucuses.  We had a version of borek which was soft bread with some potato filling.  Talk about a starch bomb!  But it did fuel us for the hike to come.  Midas Sehri is sufficiently well known to have a tour bus of Turks there that day but otherwise it was empty.  The main monument is quite famous and did not disappoint.  But there is much more to the site beyond that.  While Mehmet went back to the cafe to use the internet and Randy chatted with the custodian of the site, Alice and Claudio climbed like mountain goats up and down to see most of what was on offer.  The pictures below show the fruits of our labor.

The impressive main monument of Midas Sehri

Another view - this is a spot to worship Cybele, the Mother Goddess of the Phrygians

Claudio just below where the effigy of Cybele would have stood

Detail of the geometric carving of this "Yazilikaya"

Alice walks towards the monument which gives you a good idea of its scale

Alice is dwarfed by this wall of carved stone

A final view

Claudio admires the rock formations of the site - similar to those found in Capeddocia

The ancient carved staircase which goes to a cistern

A self portrait with rock formations - it was extremely windy at the site so Alice used her scarf to keep her hair from blowing everywhere

The so called Unfinished Monument - also impressive

The stepped altar at the acropolis of the city

Alice at the acropolis - the very top part of the city

Rock formations from the acropolis

The rock tomb which is inset into the earth and you climb a few steps down to

Actually it very creepy to me but still incredible that these things are nearly 3000 years old

The ceiling of the rock tomb

Claudio could not get enough of the rock formations

This one near the main monument is covered with tombs, houses (?) and an oven in front

A view of the city area from the road leading away from Midas Sehri

We drove on more back roads through wonderful countryside to reach the village of Kumbet.  This has several interesting historic items located on a small hill in the village center reached by a paved but very bad road.  The first is an octagonal tomb which dates from the Selcuk period but reused some materials from an earlier Byzantine church.   Nearby is an area of carving into the volcanic rock that included a fireplace dating from Ottoman times.  Finally, the most interesting, is a tomb that was probably originally Phrygian but was used later by Romans and improved up with carvings of lions and eagles.  No one was there (of course) but these three sights comprised a unique and diverse experience.

The octagon Selcuk tomb of Kumbet

Complete with stork nest on top

Reuse of Byzantine church pieces around doorway

Detail of scallop carving near doorway

Lovely reused carving

The Ottoman chimney carved from the soft volcanic rock

Detail of the chimney

Claudio walks along the top of the village where these treasure lie

View down onto the farming lands surrounding Kumbet

The Lion Tomb of Kumbet

The tomb is Phrygian but embellished by the Romans with lions (below) and eagles (above)

Lion detail

The boys check out the inside area of the tomb

Structure next to the tomb - still in use today as a farm yard

Architecture detail of Kumbet building

Next we attempted to reach the dual sites of Aslantas (Lion Stone) and Yilantas (Snake Stone).  These were not correctly marked even on our detailed map and the local villager gave us wrong information that led us to a dirt track.  We wisely decided not to pursue this route as it looked questionable whether our car could handle it.  We circled around and tried from another direction.  After more village stops we found the surprisingly good road through beautifully wild countryside that led directly to both monuments (they are next to each other).  This was my favorite sight of the day because of the loneliness of the location, the beauty of the nature and the impressiveness of the carvings themselves.  It was well worth pursuing.

On our way to Aslantas/Yilantas we went through farm land and spotted a baby donkey (black) playing with a dog while the mother donkey looked on

Mehmet gets directions (which proved wrong) from a village shop keeper

Two storks in their next in a village

We finally reach Aslantas!

The magnificent Aslantas with its pair of springing lions

The lion on the right - better preserved and wonderfully carved

The left lion

Mehmet stands near this antiquity which was another shrine to Cybele (the center niche would have held her statute)

Just a few feet down the road is the ruined monument of Yilantas

Alice with the fallen lion of Yilantas which looks like it is biting the ground

Yilantas was apparently felled during an earthquake.  Here is another part of the carved monument

Yilantas in its ruined glory

Yilantas from afar - Aslantas is just to the left around the bend

An interesting rock formation near Aslantas/Yilantas

Another view of this mini Capeddocia

Our next quest was Aslankaya near the village of Doger.  This is another lion carving that even John Ash says is hard to find.  We actually found it pretty readily as the dirt road is signposted from the paved road.  We passed women tending the fields (the women in this region seem to work much harder than the men - always hoeing fields while the men drink tea in the villages or tend to flocks).  This monument was exciting - it forms the cover of John Ash's book and stands a lone in a remote area.  Of course, no one was there.  We appreciated the artistic skills of the ancient Phyrians before heading out to our next sight.

We spotted a big turtle along the road to Aslankaya - Randy was amazed when Alice, Mehmet and Claudio all leaped from the car to admire this wildlife specimen

The rustic ladies tilling the field near Aslankaya

The isolated but tremendous Aslankaya monument

Another view with Claudio to give it scale

Alice in front of the center opening which was Cybele flanked by two embracing lions

On the left side of the monument is a springing lion.  The legs are carved with skill and flair

The inner niche lions, sadly mostly worn away

Detail of the sphinxes on the pediment

Another view of the lion haunch

Claudio in front of the Cybele niche

Mehmet and Randy survey the lonely landscape

A view of fields with some farm workers from Aslankaya

A final look at this 3000 year old gem from the road (dirt of course) when we left

In the town of Doger a statue is in the center square which recreates Aslankaya

This recreation is interesting because you can see the detail as it was supposed to be

The relatively new (14th century) caravansaray of Doger also located in the center square

Dusk was falling as we entered the village of Ayazin.  This village deserves more exploration than we could spare it as the light was failing.  But we saw the main sight - the rock carved Byzantine church of the middle ages.  We failed to find the cliff side tombs and, as it was pretty dark by then, we headed for the city of Afyon.

The unusual Byzantine church carved from the soft volcanic rock near Ayazin

A detail of the center nave - literally made from the rock itself

The original plan was to also see the historic sights of Afyon (which are abundant) but as we were late we only had dinner at the well known Ikbal (basic kebab stuff) and drove the last leg to Kutahya, an hour away, and our stopping place for the night.  We had to save the treasures of Afyon for another trip.

This area of Turkey is little appreciated or even little known but you should seek it out.  There are many more sights within the region that we did not have time to visit and the landscape is similar in places to the well known Cappedocia area.   As John Ash writes "This is one of the most unusual and evocative regions of Anatolia and I urge you to see as much of it as you can."

The cover of John Ash's esoteric but wonderful guide to Turkey

Our photo of the same Aslankaya that graces Ash's book cover