We have a free day today, and as nice as it would be to just lounge in the garden soaking up sunshine, we decide to go visit the lower Duden waterfall where the Duden river flows into the Mediterranean.
After breakfast, we ask the hotel clerk to call us a taxi to avoid being scammed and in short order, a rather beaten-up yellow cab arrives for the 20 min ride to the waterfall. The driver doesn't speak much English but wants to know where we are from. When we tell him that we are from the US, he has only two things to say - he wants to know what we think of Trump, and he complains about the cost of fuel in Türkiye - a place that already has high inflation.
After a ride along the coast, he pulls over and points us in the general direction of the Mediterranean. Fortunately, we can hear the sound of rushing water and see a big sign that says Duden Park - we must be in the right place! As we walk closer to the water, we see this statue:
This is Plancia Magna of Perge, an ancient Roman city about 10 miles inland from Antalya. Magna's father was a Roman Senator and provincial governor in the early 2nd century CE. As an adult, Magna was a politician and religious leader. She was also a euergetes, which is a Greek title meaning philanthropist, and she financed many of the building projects in Perge with her own money. This portrait sculpture was found during excavations in Perge and is sitting in this spot as an example showing the level to which women could rise during the Roman Empire. Nice!
You can just see the waterfall in the background of the picture above, but here are a couple of better pictures including some crazies who really want to get up-close-and-personal with these very nice waterfalls:
We walk upstream a little way and find that in the summer; they also have zip lines and river rafting (which ends at a very serious metal fence to avoid anyone going over the falls). But now that it isn't tourist season, it is just a nice nature setting in a pretty urban place:
You can just see a blue walkway in the upper left of this picture. We go to check it out and find that the city has both a bike path and walkway along the coast back toward the old town. Even better, the walking surface is spongy, so it is less bad on our old joints! It is about a 6-mile walk back to the hotel. We decide that if we get tired, we can always stop and get a taxi back to the hotel, but I have a feeling that once we start, we will stubborn our way to the end.
I am right, but for much of the route, we are walking through various city parks. We stop once for a snack and a second time for gelato, so we aren't too worn out by the time we get back to an area that we recognize. It also puts us in the right place to try to get a good sunset picture. This time, we are rewarded:
We enjoyed the restaurant last night so much that we went back a second time. Almost all of the waiters are in their 50's or above and I have a feeling that these are the grandsons of the restaurant founder.
After dinner, there is one more place that I want to get some pictures of; Hadrian's Gate:
Constructed to commemorate Hadrian's visit to Antalya in 130 CE, it was later incorporated into the walls surrounding the city and its harbor. The bottom part of the tower that you can see to the right of the gate was built in Roman times, but the top part was rebuild in the thirteenth century CE while the Persians controlled the city. For many centuries, the gate was built into the city walls and not used. It was only rediscovered in the 1950's when the city wall collapsed and was restored in 1959.
Our trip is coming to an end. Tomorrow, we have a long van ride to the town of Selçuk, which is the closest town to the ancient city of Ephesus. Stay tuned!
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