Ancient Herakleia

The ruins of the ancient city of Herakleia are spread out across the village of Kapıkırı. The village now lies alongside Lake Bafa but in ancient times it was a part of the Gulf of Latmos. Our tourist guide book decribes Herakleia both as one of the oddest places in the region and as one of the most engaging and romantic locations in Anatolia. We were intrigued and so decided to include a brief visit on our way back to the marina at Didim. It would be our fourth site visited on 27 April so time was a little against us making the most of Herakleia.

It was a reasonable drive south of Priene, then east along the southern edge of Lake Bafa before we turned onto a small road for the last 10km. Nicky said that it felt like being in the Lake District with the narrow road surrounded by rocks and mountains, plus having to stop for cattle to pass us every few minutes. To our left we could see an island with ruined Byzantine fortifications on it and then above us a larger castle.

Four ladies were hawking trinkets and weavings beside a small layby and closed up hut. After talking to them we left the car and followed their directions through a small gate and down a track across fields to the lake shore.

It was certainly very pretty with fishing boats moored by the lakeside.

Up above us were the ruins of the castle walls but we were looking for what the ladies had described as rock tombs.

Looking a little harder we saw several large blocks of stone balanced upon the more natural looking boulders at the waters edge. Climbing up onto the boulders we discovered the Byzantine rock tombs.

The bodies would have been laid in coffin sized recesses cut into the boulders and then the large stone blocks placed over them to seal the tomb. A long time ago grave-robbers obviously discovered that the tombs were worth opening so now the stone tomb lids are pushed to the side. Some are just ajar, but most are completely open.

As we walked and climbed around the headland we saw more and more of the rock tombs.

Standing a little higher up and looking down on the promentary the tombs were just everywhere. Who knows why they chose to bury their dead in this way but it certainly makes it an interesting (and as our guidebook described, “slightly odd”) place to visit.

We continued to climb up to get a good look at the castle ruins and to look out across the lake. From this vantage point we could see bits and pieces of the ruined walls of ancient Heraklei all around and in the village of Kapıkırı. However, after a long day, there was not much of an urge to hunt them all down. Indeed, we took the hint from our guidebook which explains that it would take several days to properly explore the area.

Perhaps it is a shame that we missed the nearby Yediler monastery and the Stylos hermit-cave, both apparently adorned with fine frescoes from the 11^th to13th centuries, but we’d had enough tourism for one day and so we headed back to BV.

Didim Marina, Turkey