Koprulu Kanyon

This morning we were heading north again back into the Taurus Mountains in order to visit Koprulu Kanyon a scenic attraction and National Park and the nearby town of Selge with the ruins of a large Roman theater. After crossing the coastal belt the road wound its way up a river valley through picturesque forests, along side crystal clear water and past a number of villages with many restaurants and rafting businesses seemingly closed for the winter season.

Eventually we came to a turnoff with a sign pointing left to the canyon and Selge, but after a few yards we decided that a little exploration of this road was warranted before venturing further. That turned out to be a wise decision because 300 meters farther on there was a narrow bridge over the canyon. The nearby sign informed as that the distance between the stone parapets was only 2.7m. Not wide enough for our truck particularly in light of the very tight turn onto the bridge. So we contented ourselves with a little exploration of the bridge and nearby canyon on foot.

However luck smiled upon us as while Nina was taking photographs I got talking to a man who seemed to be hanging about at a lookout near the bridge. It turned out that he was a local guide (interestingly the one recommended by Lonely Planet - how's that for a coincidence) and could take us to Selge in his vehicle.

So we piled into his van and off we went. The road from the bridge to Selge was an amazing example of a road simply carved out of the side of a mountain. We encoutered switch back after switch back as we climbed out of the river valley onto the plateau along the way passing through forests of Pine, Cedor, Olive and Sandlewood trees. We stopped a number of times to view the canyon and other attractions including a local women leading a herd of goats up onto the plateau. She called to them as she walked and they followed obediently. We were told that she was carrying food for the goats in her backpack and that they knew this and followed the food rather than the women.

The village of Selge was really something, a mix of old and modern (relatively) houses with terraced gardens an fields everywhere. Today it seems like a small village with only a few hundred inhabitants but in Roman times it was apparently a much bigger town. Evidence of this was the 10,000 seat Roman theater situated right in the village. The theater is somewhat damaged due to an eathquake somewhere in the past and from weathering of the stone work but it is still impressive.

Back at our truck we retraced our route back to the coastal highway and then continued west along first class road to the city of Antalya. We did not stop in Antalya but took the bypass road, even so we could see that it was a modern city with shopping malls and evey possible modern convenience including MacDonalds and Stabucks.

Once clear of the city the highway folowed the coast past many resort hotels and beachside businesses. This must be a really busy place in the summer.