The last Saturday in December arrived with crisp blue sky and sunshine, but a bit chilly. If we bundled up with layers of clothes to keep warm, why couldn't we set out on a sightseeing trip on the moped? Dan talked to Tom on the VHF and he was also interested, so soon it was arranged that Tom would rent a moped in town and we would set out to try to find the ancient city of Tlos.

This time I didn't want to take any chances and freeze, so under my jeans I put on a pair of leggings, on top a tee-shirt, two pairs of sweatshirts, my fleece top and over everything my foul weather jacket. My foul weather jacket is the only jacket I brought with me that can withstand the wind, and using it while riding on the moped worked great! Of course on my feet I could only fit one pair of socks in my sneakers, and this day it kept my feet warm. My hands were no problem, as I could pull them up and into my sleeves, so they stayed toasty warm the entire day! Dan and Tom bundled up also as much as they thought they needed, and soon we rode the mopeds to the nearest gas station to fill up, before our trip could start.

Through Fethiye we drove and headed out on the nice and wide road towards Kemer in the east. Around Fethiye the big roads have only one lane in each direction, but with a wide breakdown strip, so if you want to, you can pull to the side and let other vehicles pass without any trouble. That's usually where tractors and slower traffic drive anyway! When we arrived at the big round-about where the roads take off in four different directions, we went straight across the swollen river and looked for a much smaller road that would take off to our right. Immediately the road condition worsened! Huge potholes were everywhere, so we drove a slalom course with our mopeds to avoid them. Here and there it looked like the entire road had been a riverbed recently, and all the rivers and streams we saw, ran swift and over their edges! At a corner of one bridge, the road had completely washed away, so only half of the road was passable. This road we now traveled on, wound its way between small villages, where the houses sat close to the road on both sides. Sometimes I wondered how a big truck could make it through without scarping the houses on either side? As it was winter still, everything looked kind of brown and dirty. No grass in the yards, just piles of sticks, wood and anything usable! This was farm country and in the barn, usually kept under the residence, the cows were comfortably chewing on their food. The goats rummaged in the yards looking for anything edible, as did the chickens and roosters. Not one of the pink beasts with cloven hooves and curly tail did we see!

Eventually we had bounced along the road far enough and came upon the turn off to Tlos! By then we all felt we could use a cup of coffee, so we stopped at a small store/caf'e at the turn-off. No Nescafe was to be had, so we opted to try authentic Turkish coffee! It arrived in very small cups, and the top layer of the coffee seemed to be foamy? Not so - it was the grounds that hadn't settled to the bottom yet! Once we let the grounds settle, the coffee was quite good and sweet, as it usually is loaded with sugar; right up my alley! It didn't take long to finish our coffee, so soon we got back on the mopeds and continued our adventure. The road we now traveled on was even narrower than the one we just left, and just as many potholes, and now it started climbing higher and higher up the side of the mountain. The higher we came, the more beautiful the scenery became, as we could see down and across the huge valley towards Fethiye mountains. Up and in front of us rose even higher mountain peaks, which were totally covered with snow. Later on we found out that those mountains reached well over ten thousand feet!

Off to our right we soon could see the acropolis of Tlos, which was adorned with an Ottoman fort. We followed the road straight by all the ruins at first, turned around higher up and stopped at the theater to have our first look at the ancient city of Tlos. Out came my cameras, the digital one hooked up to our inverter, so it would work, and the ruins were immortalized on my negatives. A bit farther down the road more ruins could be seen, and when we stopped there to have a look, a local man caught up to us and started talking. Without really understanding what was happening, we got our private guide. Of course we never asked what the charges would be, so once the tour was over and the man wanted 20 million lira, we were kind of surprised, but paid! We learned something that day; you always ask what it's going to cost before you agree to anything, as the price then possibly could have been cheaper! Anyway, in a way it was worth to have the man take us around, as he was fairly knowledgeable about what we were looking at. What we stood in front right then, we found out was the old market place, and in front in the open field was the stadium. A short walk through some overgrown fields, brought us by the ruins of a Byzantine church to our left, and to our right was the gymnasium. Soon we arrived at a spectacularly beautiful spot, where the Roman baths and teahouse was located. Big huge windows in the teahouse looked out and down upon the valley below, and on a clear day you supposedly could see all the way to port city of Patara. Along with the teahouse and baths, there also was a hospital in the same building, and that was proven to us by the medical symbols of two snakes drinking from a bowl of milk, which was engraved on the outside of the last wall! Before we understood what the man was trying to explain to us, he almost got aggravated with us; he pronounced the word "snake", so we had no idea of what he was saying. When he finally said "schlang" in German, I finally understood, as that word is very similar to the Swedish word for "hose", and once I got that connection, I figured out it was "snake" he was trying to say! We all had a good laugh then!

Once we came back out on the road, the man's wife had put out her items for sale, and of course we had to go over and see what she was selling. It was mostly dried figs and some big, long pea pods, which grow on wild bushes in the mountains. We had a taste of both, and I bought a bag of figs, as they tasted quite good! Oregano bushes grew every where on the slopes also, and you could pick for your own use. I just rolled some between my fingers and rest of that day I could smell oregano! Soon we continued down the road and started climbing up the steep hill towards the Ottoman fort. All along this side of the hill there were numerous Lycian rock tombs of various sizes, and these had supposedly belonged to ordinary families. The size of the tomb depended on how many people belonged in the family. Scattered on the ground were also quite a few sarcophagi, which was burial tombs for single people! We huffed and puffed our way up to the tippety-top of the fort and from there the view was spectacular. I could have stayed there all day absorbing the gorgeous scenery around, below and above us! Of course our guide wanted to continue, and now he brought us down and around to the north side of the acropolis, where numerous soldiers rock tombs were carved into the mountainside. The path leading to these tombs were very steep and zig-zaggy, and slippery in spots, but even worse was the path leading down to the king's tomb. It was almost straight downhill to it, and once we got down far enough, we had to climb up a homemade ladder, made from tree branches, slither along a wet and muddy ledge, and finally we stood before the king's tomb. The most unusual thing about this tomb was the carving on one side, depicting Pegasus, the winged horse, carrying a soldier. On either side of the king's tomb were his personal soldier's tombs. We never found out if the soldiers were buried dead or alive with the king?

The walk down to the king's tomb was hard enough, but even harder it was for me to get down that rickety ladder. I made it of course with the help of three strong men! Once we reached the flat surface of the road, our guide wasn't even winded, but the rest of us had a hard time catching our breaths. Would we enjoy a cup of hot apple tea as a conclusion to our guided tour? Of course we would, even though by then we were boiling with all the clothing we had bundled up in! Our guide persuaded a local restaurant owner to prepare the tea for us, which we enjoyed drinking while sitting outside on a picnic table to cool down. An old woman came walking down the road while we sat at the table, and it was hard not to stare at her. She was totally bent over from the waist, so she looked like an upside down L. In each hand she had a stick to help her along, and her gait was slow and arduous. Over the years the heavy burden of carrying sticks for her fire had slowly bent her! We soon thanked our guide, and of course we had paid him his fee, and so the return trip to Fethiye began!

The previous description was from my observations, and the following I copied from our "Fethiye Tourism Guide", as the guidebook tells more about the history behind the ruins than I know.

Tlos, located 12 kilometers from Kemer, is one of the oldest residential areas of Lycia. In the Hitite archives from the 14th century B.C. there is mention of the city of Dlawa in the Lukka land, while it is called Tlawa in Lycian writings. A bronze axe found at Tlos, belonging to the 11th century B.C. proves that both the city and the Lycians were in existence at that period.

Tlos lived on during the Byzantine Period and is one of the few cities which continued in existence up to the 19th century. The walls on top of the acropolis and the ruins of the large buildings are from Ottoman times. These ruins are from the tower built by Kanli Ali Aga, who ruled in this district during the 19th century. The walls on the eastern slope of the acropolis are from the Lycian period. The Roman walls circling the acropolis at spots not surrounded by natural rock formations are made of very regular blocks and can be seen clearly from the eastern slopes of the hill.

Almost all the buildings of the city are located outside the walls. The stadium leaning against the walls with its well-preserved seats is very much in evidence. Facing the stadium is a basilica made up of three partitions and with an arched entrance. At the southern end of the site there are ruins of a bath, Paleasta and Gymnasium. Next to the bath, there is another one with circular shaped reliefs, very well preserved, which are astonishingly intricate. To the east of the gymnasium, a Byzantine chapel stands. In the vast square in the east is the agora of Tlos. To the north of the square with the village coffee-houses, there is a huge tower from the Roman period, which stands in fine condition even today. Similarly, to the east of the square, there is a well preserved theater, and the Izrara scripture below the north wall of the theater which dates back to the Lycian period. The inscription, which is now in the museum, depicts various dramatic war scenes. On the northern slope of the acropolis there are numerous Lycian rock tombs, the most interesting of which is undoubtedly the one with figures of Pegasus, the winged-horse, carrying Bellerophon fighting with Chimera, the three-headed dragon.

"Bellerophontes, son of King Glaucus of Corinthos, visit Proitus, king of Tryn. Antelia, the king's wife, falls in love with Bellerophontes at first sight but is rejected. Antelia thereupon wishes to take revenge and runs to her husband, saying "O Proitus, you must either kill yourself or Bellerophontes." Because the Gods would scorn his killing a guest in his house, the king gives Bellerophontes a letter, carrying the seal of death, and asks him to take it to his father-in-law Iobates, the Lycian King. Iobates welcomes his guest and arranges a feast in his honor, which lasts nine days and nine nights. On the morning of the tenth day Bellerophontes gives the letter to the king, where Proitus writes to have him killed. The king, who has become very fond of the young man, cannot find it in his heart to kill him so, instead, asks Bellerophontes to destroy the monstrous Chimera, which has the head of a lion, the body of a horse and the tail of a snake. Bellerophontes rides on his winged-horse, Pegasus, bestowed on him by the Goddess Athene, and hits the dragon in his mouth with his lead-tipped spear. The fires breathed by the dragon melts the lead with which it is suffocated. On his unexpected victorious return, Iobates sends him to fight the Solymons and the Amazons. When Bellerophontes returns each time even more victorious, the king shows him the letter from his son-in-law and learns the truth. He then asks him to stay in Lycia and marries him to his younger daughter Philonoe."

It is doubtful whether the tomb at Tlos actually belongs to Bellerophon, but various inscriptions discovered at Tlos mention the names of Bellerophon, Iobates and Sarpedon.