21 September 2024
*Takes a sip of coffee*
*Sighs*
Ancient ruins.
So here I am, in the middle of the night at London Gatwick Airport and I started to write these words. I have just missed my flight to Dublin and I feel like I am stranded here.
The core idea of “I wanna visit those places” started by the philosophy. I started to read philosophy last year. While I was reading I realized some of the philosophers were living in the places like, Miletus or Pergamon. In the beginning I thought they were Greek cities. After a while, I somehow wanted to have a look at the map and bingo. They were located in Turkey.
I think the worst part was that I didn’t even know it.
I visited the British museum last April. I focused on the history of the Anatolia region and there were many pieces from the ancient cities that located in Turkey. I have been in Ephesus beforehand but I have never been in another ancient cities. British museum gave me the last spark for this trip.
I immediately started to planning. I have used the project management software. Come on, don’t surprise. I studied project management for 2 years. Of course I’m gonna use it.
21 Sep 2024 - 07:27
I’m having a coffee to stay awake. It’s been a 24 hours and I’m still awake. I finally managed to got my boarding pass.
London Gatwick Airport, just after I missed my flight to Dublin
I have mention the stoicism in my blog earlier (Lisbon). I have expanded my curiosity about stoicism and others. I got a text book for fundamentals however I couldn’t dedicate my time to read. I had to give all of my energy to master’s degree this passing year and I believe I can spare some time this autumn.
While I was reading the first philosophers such as Thales, Platon etc. I found out that these people have lived in Turkey. I’m still not sure about to tell you individually which philosopher lived in where and I suppose this approach will be out of scope of my blog.
I dedicated 5 days for this trip. I’m living in north of Turkey and It took more than 5 hours to get the Didim. Didim was the most important part of our trip cause we stayed there. We stared visiting by Pergamon City. Pergamon used to be a port city. The ancient ruins are located on top of the hill. We believed that the whole village (it’s a village at the moment) was the part of the ancient city. On top of the hill, the theatre and some religious buildings were located. only the theatre remains from ancient times. The rest, pile of marble.
Temple of Trajan
It wasn’t a big surprise for us to see pile of marble. We knew it and still visited it. Most of them were about 2000 years old and belonged to Hellenistic period.
Hellenistic period is represents roughly just before the born of Christ. Before the romans conquered the Aegean Sea. The places that I visited were located mostly in Izmir and Aydin. Those places were Greek cities on that time.
Possibly those cities were very rich and wanted to show their superiority to others. Imagine that you are living 2000 years before and seeing and marble theatre that able to host more than 15000 people at the same time. Also, that theatre is located next to a sea and you can see the directly the sunset in the afternoon (which I assume they are performing in the afternoon). It was unbelievable. That theatre was in Miletus. Being in that stage was indescribable .
I couldn’t stop thinking that Thales could have been in there.
Miletus Ancient Theatre
I wasn’t feeling OK. The whole year I had been studying and I’ve used all of my energy. Particularly the last 2 months were not easy. I lost energy, motivation and colors.
I can see the colors but I can’t feeling it. You know what I mean? It’s like a looking through a black and white lens. I felt numbness. Everything lost a meaning. I looked for a meaning on the road. I traveled a bit in Ireland. It didn’t help. I couldn’t study because my head was full. My mind was on constant duty. Oh lord. I wasn’t.. I wasn’t an easy person. I’m still not but in that time period. Yeah, I had some problems that I needed to solve. I read (tried to read) some books. I went to gigs, book train tickets. Been in London. Nope. I’ve never ever been feel numbness this much in my life before.
Are there limits to any emptiness? - Hozier
I hiked with Nietzsche, metaphorically though. Let me share few sentences that I underscore. You might see the connection with the last paragraph.
“Finding yourself shouldn't be confused with going places to look true yourself“ Because in that regard, “No mountain is high enough.“ You might be on a road. You might travel the whole world, climb the Mount Everest or surf in Hawaii. You might visit the Sahara Desert or see some penguins in the Antartica. You might not find “yourself“. As Nietzsche trying to say is, much deep. Don’t confused with the places. It’s in inner place.
I can relate on that, in the beginning of my solo trips I was feeling much different.
I was looking for “Myself“ in the streets of Berlin.
I was looking for “Myself“ while I passing by the fjords in Norway.
And, I was definitely looking for “Myself“ while I was questioning myself in Lisbon.
I couldn't. Most probably you won’t gonna find as well.
Then the question is arises by Nietzsche , “What does it mean to search for ourselves?“. He responses, “Either you are who you are already or you became someone other than who you are.“
…
Yeah, here I am. I’m still here. I haven’t left this place yet, the Pale Blue Dot.
…
Have you thought this article would be about ancient cities? (Smile was here)
Miletus Ancient Theatre
This wasn’t new feeling for me and I believe everyone feels sometime like this. Usually this feelings not stay long enough. However this year was different. I’ve tried everything to get rid of the lens but it just getting more and more obvious. I couldn’t take it off.
Pessimism.
Temple of Apollo and Miletus:
Temple of Apollo. It has never been finished the construction. According to pictures it was looking astonishing. However in real life…
When we arrive there we were expecting to see the temple. I asked, where is the temple then? It’s just a pile of marble. Fun aside though it was ok.
There weren’t many Turkish people around. Mostly the tourists. It made me wonder why they are here? I feel a bit confused by this. Maybe the reason that I actually from there. Maybe something else.
There was a 16 KM road to Miletus. It was wide and surfaced by marble. So, it was a serious thing. We believed that it must be for religious purposes. Walking 16 KM from Miletus to Temple of Apollo is a quiet task. If you wondering, you can’t walk or drive on that road. It hasn’t survived.
Temple of Apollo
We headed to Miletus. Miletus museum wasn’t big enough in my opinion. You should visit the British Museum. Anyway, there were few buildings but I focused on the theatre. This theatre was different than the Ephesus or Pergamon theatre. This wasn’t located on a hillside. Roughly 2000 years ago it was a seaside. I suppose it was looking like a Monaco or Venice. They built this huge 15000 people theatre on a seaside. I’m repeating. It was from helenistic time. It was impressive. Later, the Romans and Ottomans have used the theatre.
Unbelievable.
21 Sep 2024
Türkiye
Osman Kerem
