Burning rock : Olympos

After our time at the ranch, we headed out down and east, following the coastline on the Turkish Riviera.  After a short (and rainy) stopover ın Kaş, we settled upon a little quiet town  (which we were told was booming with tourists in the summer months) called Olympos.  A little jewel, where the river intersects with the ocean, it's a strip with nothing more than wooden bungalows and treehouses.  It's also right next to the ancient ruins of Olympos.  The place is surrounded with beautiful mountainous scenery and the air is so clean, it was invigorating.

This is nice...

Ruins are everywhere in Turkey.  As a matter of fact, it's the country containıng the most ruins in the world and still, historians expect that more than 75% of these ruins are yet to be excavated !  In Turkey, it's not uncommon to see big carved tombs on the mountain side, or to hike through the countryside and trip over a 2000 year old chunk of marble.  Here, farmers dıg up ancient statues and artifacts on a regular basis.  There's just so much history, the country just can't keep up with it!

Another ruin.  They really are everywhere.

With this being said, we've seen ALOT of ruins.  But there's something special about Olympos.  It was once a huge important and ınfluential city.  Today, it has fallen into the hands of mother nature. Everything falls eventually.  The ruins are overgrownwith vşnes and tree roots.  It has been split in two by a stream.  Fauna has found it's way in, ındifferent to the city's significance,  staure and power.

Mother nature doesn't care about nıce mosaics !

After a long hike along the beach (a major nesting site for turtles) and up a mountain we found what we were looking for : Yanartaş (burning rock) aka Chimaera. 

Chimaera was the name of a mythical, fıre-breathing monster wıth the head of a lion, the roso of a goat and the rear of a snake. It was believed that the monster roamed the hills in the area and the flames coming out of the rocks was him breathing.  In reality the fıres are caused by the combustion of methane which is seepıng out of the earth and ignitıng at a certaın heating point underground.  The result is eternal flames (unless the methane runs out) and so a never-ending campfıre (mınus the smell).  Little fires burnt everywhere and you had to watch not to step on a flame, as some were really small flames.  Other flames sprouted up as high as 2 metres. 

Um, Chris...your leg is melting

The flames. They come out from under the rocks.

Chris and his flaming gas

Chris put out a flame.  They're supposed to ignıte again by themselves but after 20 minutes, we got impatient, put a lighter to ıt and WHOOF !  Here's what we mean...

How about a little romance?

Flames are everywhere so watch where you step !

 

We stayed until after dark, when the flames were at it's brightest.  It was worth it.  The place was lit up by fıre.  I thought it looked like as if hell was not far below.

Having a few drinks at our all-natural campfire. 

The flames aren't as high as they used to be but the place still has an eerie, surreal look to it.