"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Termessos Hike - Jan 2024 - Antalya, Turkey

Our second hiking trip in Antalya took us northward to the hills that rise suddenly when you head inland from the placid Mediterranean. First the highway towards Isparta and then a turn off on to smaller roads, finally a turning into the National Park and a scary final ascent on cobbled switchback bends into the mountains. At the parking lot there were several cars, but a feeling of silence and remoteness, perhaps because this stunning site is less visited in the winter season and also as it takes a hike to get to the ruins, a lot of visitors favour the more accessible Perge or Aspendos.

There were ruins under excavation right by the dirt-road parking lot, but we headed for the trail to the main city and began a slow ascent that took us along a moderate path covering around a mile and ascending about 600 feet. As we gained height we saw the outer city walls - specacularly constructed from huge blocks of limestone. Historical sources tell us that Alexander the Great bypassed Termessos on his journey to the east, seeing it as too tough to lay siege to and conquer - when you get to those walls, high in the valley, you can see why. After that we caught sight of the upper walls, another impregnable barrier in their day, but not before detouring to our first clamber over some ruins at the Gymnasium/Bath. Only an expert could tell this collonaded construction was a bath house - but the walls and arches are still intact, surrounded by fallen blocks of stone. I could feel the passage of centuries underfoot as we made our quiet ascent and came to the upper wall.

Signs were dotted here and there on the trail, so we headed first for the cisterns - amazing underground caverns lined with blocks of stone that formed the water supply of the city, which you could look down into but not get inside - and then the Theatre (Tyatro). This was an incredible sight as we came out of the scrub on the hillside to take in the view. A virtually complete amphitheatre nestling beneath an imposing peak. I have never been to Macchu Pichu, but Termessos has been compared to it. A lost city dreaming in the hills. You step out into that theatre and feel like you're discovering it, which in a personal sense you are. The civilisation here was old even when Alexander passed by, so the stones represent many centuries. Here they would have had dramas in the ancient greek style - and who knows what else went on in the amphitheatre. Retoric, debate? It had the feeling of being the main gathering place for the city, so I can imagine the people at times of threat or crisis gathering here to talk it through or hear from their leader.

Time stood still for a while, but as other guys we knew began to arrive - having come in other rental cars and covered the same hike that we had - we began to laugh and chat. The atmosphere remainded pleasantly quiet though - none of the hurried or distracting chatter that you associate with tourist sites. The mountains are still protecting Termessos in the modern age, but from a different kind of siege. There was time for some moments of meditation on the incredible views down towards the sea, or on the majestic mountain overlooking the theatre. And for a selfie of course - you kind of have to, right?

It was a while before we could drag ourselves away, back past the cisterns and then to a path that Rabinath had found on his map app that headed through the western Necropolis to a viewpoint. Slowly we wound our way down and then began to ascend, through stone sacophagi many centuries old, some bearing inscriptions that still survive. Again I found myself imagining those mountain-city people, their lives and times, all now disappeared but remembered in these stones. 

The viewpoint took a while to reach but was more than worth it - a vista of snow-covered peaks and bare limestone mountains unfolded. There was a modern fire-tower which itself seemed to be aging and decaying as if it wanted to be more a part of the ruins. We had a quiet moment here enjoying the sky and the horizon before trekking slowly back. Termessos left a real impression on me - a chance to indulge my love of ancient stone and the feeling of vast gulfs of time, connection to the past and to eternity.

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