April 26 – An Ancient Wonder and Yalikavak

The mausoleum of Mausolus is open today so it was the first stop on our tour. 

We thought it quite special that we would be visiting two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...Mausoleum of Mausolus in Bodrum (formerly Halicarnassus) and the Temple of Artemis near Ephesus.  Both are in ruins but the Mausoleum had a nice exhibit that had lots of interesting engineering type drawings, models and such.  It was destroyed due a series of earthquakes and much of the materials were recycled into the nearby buildings and the crusader's castle. 

The Temple of Artemis will likely have very little excavation work done on it as it sits at the water table level and any excavation work is quickly filled with water.  

These are our second and third of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  A few years back we were in Rhodes and visited the place where the Colossus of Rhodes was believed to have stood.  

Plans to see the Egyptian pyramids later this year so that will be four of seven. 

There isn’t much remaining but they had a nice exhibit about the mausoleum...

and had small model of the original.

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More Maussolos Mausoleum
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Then we headed up a hill to see the windmills.  They are in pretty rough shape but the views from the hill are great.

Our main site today (we opted to pass on the theater) was the yachting town of Yalikavak.  

It was basically a trip for lunch.  We walked all along the marina and saw lots of yachts…including some really big ones.

We discovered that the really big yachts have an “trunk” in the back that allows them to stow lots of stuff.  Some stored their smaller “dinghy’s” out of sight in these trunks (word doesn’t do justice to the size of these ancillary boats). 

We had lunch at a restaurant on an upper floor with good views of the marina.  Many of the places in the area are still closed.  The yachting season hasn’t started yet.

Then it was back to Bodrum for a leisurely afternoon.  The drive gave us some good views of the surrounding towns and bays.