THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST

Ayasoluk Hill with Ayasoluk Citadel (Byzantine), Basilica of St. John (Roman), and Isa Bey Mosque (Ottoman), Selcuk, (Ephesus), Turkey




Something physical to touch, a photo to see, a story to hear, a memory, a feeling you get when visiting a place from the past, these are ways the past is present in life.  A timeline of Turkey's history is helpful to understand the "layers of civilizations"  of the past, as we travel through it in our present:

• Ancient History to 2500 BC - Neolithic/Neanderthal
• 2500 BC-1180 BC - Bronze Age; Hattian Culture; Hittites
• 1180 BC-546 BC -Urartians, Phrygians, Greeks, Lydians, Carians, Lycians, Assyrians, Medes
• 546 BC-334 BC - Greeks, Persians
• 334 BC-150 BC - Alexander the Great/Hellenistic World, Galatians (Celts)
• 150 BC-AD 300 - Roman Rule
• AD 300-1071 - Byzantine Empire
• 1071-1243 - Selcuks
• 1300-1453 - Coming of Ottomans
• 1453 - Capture of Constantinople
• 1454-1700 - Ottoman Empire
• 1700-1910 - Empire crumbles with pressures from surrounding countries
• 1911-1919 - Balkan Wars
• 1919-1922 - Turkish Revolution/War of Independence

1922-Present - Westernization of Turkey to a democratic state, led by Ataturk, "Father of Turkey"

Join us on a journey into the past as we travel the coast road of Turkey from the Mediterranean Sea to the Aegean Sea, seeing, touching, hearing, feeling, and exploring some of the remains of countless civilizations that came before.

Phrygian Tombs, Porsuk Baraji (Dam), between Eskisehir and Kutahya.
We had stopped to look at the lake and formations along the shore, never realizing we would find these in our photos, triggering an investigation into who they might have belonged too.