Photography, rowing and the pursuit of data.....and Renee  

Greece   Athens & Islands  -  partial to full moon targets​​

​Athens 5 nights 4 days

Recovery

National Arch Museum https://www.namuseum.gr/en/

Acropolis + acropolis museum - night photographs  & Markets - The Acropolis of Athens as seen from Mount Lycabettus. 

Meteora Monastries 14 hr day - 4hrs each way bus.   

https://www.viator.com/tours/Athens/Enjoy-Greek-food-and-discover-Athens/d496-100072P1.

Mycenae, Corinth day trip 

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Athens to Crete (Chania) ferry 8 hr 

Crete 4 night 3 days

Chania Old town - cooking 

Kissamos: Balos & Gramvousa Luxury Catamaran Sailing Cruise

Ruins Knossos & Museum outside Heraklion

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Crete (heraklion)   ferry to Santorini 1.5 hrs 

Santorini 3 nights 2 days

​Archaeological Bus Tour To Akrotiri Excavations & Red Beach

Santorini: Volcano and Hot Springs Sunset Dinner Cruise

Full moon caldera images 

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Ferry Santorini to Mykonos to   Samos to Pythagoria Samos Kusadasi (Izmir)  

https://www.ferriesingreece.com/maps/​​​

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Mykonos  1 night - Windmills & old Town 

https://www.viator.com/tours/Mykonos/Cruise-into-Mykonos-4-Hour-Discovery-for-First-Time-Visitors/d958-383662P22

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Samos - 1 night, next day  transfer to Pythaogria - museums 

​https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-to-do-in-samos-greece/​​

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Turkey  Istambul & Cappodocia

Izmir - West coast  4 nights - 3 days

Arrive at Kudasi from Samos early 

Drive to Ephysus, Ephesus Archaeological Museum, then on to Izmir 1hr. 

Ancient capital of Roman Asia, magnificent Ephesus is one of the best preserved cities in the world. Walk down Marble Street, where the ruts of chariot wheels can still be seen, visit the striking Library of Celsus, with its elegant two-story facade, and feel transported back to the glory days of Rome.

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Gediz deltasi,  Cigli north of izmir.  flamingoes Late spring for mating. Day boat trip close to Izmir (Flamingo Yolu Tekne Turu 1 hr),  Drive and walk to the delta. 

https://www.birdingplaces.eu/en/birdingplaces/turkey/gediz-deltasi

​Bostaanli Pazari (bazarr) Wed 9-7 

Kemeralti Carsisi  (Market)  & Agora of Smyrna - arches in Izmir

Kordon (seafront) is heart of old city. 

Cesme day trip

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Izmir to Cappodocia 1 stop via Istambul

Cappodocia  3 nights - 2 days  

​Hot air balloon &  Love Valley Fairy Chimneys, eroded tuff from volcanic eruptions. 

Red and White Valleys 

Ihlara Valley rock cut churches esp. Selime Monastry & Cathederal.

Open air museum Byzantine rock churches in Goreme 

Derinkuyu  Underground city  600 BC

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https://www.newgoreme.com/cappadocia-tours/

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With its dreamlike landscape of tufa towers, Cappadocia is simply breathtaking. Explore lovely villages and Byzantine cave churches adorned with stunning frescoes, head underground to visit an ancient troglodyte city, and hike in the Goreme Valley, with its moonscape of fanciful “fairy chimneys” and rock outcrops. Enjoy a whirling dervish “Sema” ceremony at the original 12th century Seljuk caravanserai of Saruhan. This dance of the whirling dervishes is inspired by Rumi, the mystic poet, and is part of Turkish culture.

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Instanbul 5 nights (4  days) 

Day 1 topkapi palace  &  Arasta Bazaar part of Blue mosque complex, Ferry south for a panorama of old Istambul. 

Day 2 Sulemanye Mosque - lp recommend  & Grand Bazarr - textiles in LP

Day 3 istambul archeology museum. Bosphorous Cruise - 2 hrs at 10:35 uzun bogaz ​

Day 4 Kuscenneti - 2.5 hrs drive near Bursa.

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1 day A guided walking tour includes the renowned Topkapi Palace, a marvelous labyrinth of harem quarters and displays of bejeweled sultans' treasures, the monumental Haghia Sophia, and the ethereal Blue Mosque, with its slender minarets visible for miles around. Cap the day with a sunset ferry ride on the Bosphorus.

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Home ​
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Black sea coast 

Bergama Acropolis  - day trip north of Izmir 

museum of turkish and islamic art​​

Aya Sofya

Hatttusa - Hittite capital

bafra headland birds

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Nemrut Nagi heads -SE 

Gobelki Tepe

cendere bridge

halfeti eufrates tour

zeugma mosaic museum

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Around Instambul 

Kuscenneti - 2.5 hrs drive near Bursa.

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https://eskapas.com/birdwatching-in-turkey/

​The main migration routes are along the Bosphorus and Canakkale Straits and the valleys of the Eastern Black Sea.The best time of year to see these remarkable phenomena are April – May, and August – September, and the best vantage points in Istanbul are the hills of Sariyer and Camlica overlooking the Bosphorus.  

 

The other must on their itinerary is the wetlands, of which the nearest to Istanbul is just a two and a half-hour drive away. This is Kuscenneti, one of Turkey’s first national parks, near Bandirma. 

​https://travelatelier.com/blog/migratory-birds-turkey/

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Bafa Lake Bird Sanctuary, located between Söke district of Aydın and Muğla, 

The most spectacular migration in Turkey, however, is the flight of storks down Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait in Spring and Autumn.  ​

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Travelogue ​

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Plato they say led the way to today - a brief history

After the last ice age, 5 isolated civilizations built complex societies with large  permanent structures. In the fertile crescent there were large sophisticated societies in Egypt and Mesopotamia and many smaller ones, many with their own writing systems, The Phonetic alphabet first evolved in the  Semitic speaking  Levant, spreading throughput the Middle East.  Monotheist religions based on the prophet Abraham appeared, and Judaism became established in the Hebrew speaking community.   Greek scholarship based on scientific principles developed around the Aegean Sea, and then was spread throughout the Middle East by the Macedonian Empire as they took over from the Acheamenid empire. In Egypt, they started the era of  the Ptolemy Pharos.  Under the Ptolemies, Alexandria became the new center of Greek scholarship.  Over time, Christianity and Islam became the dominant Abrahamic religious philosophies, with Greek scholarship in the Greek speaking Byzantine empire in Ephysus, and Islamic Moorish Spain, Iran and Samarkand. Eventually as the Ottoman empire took over the Byzantine,  Greek scholarship was exported to Florence and was re-discovered as  part of the Renaissance that flourished as the grip of Catholic dogma weakened  in Northern Italy. 

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It all starts with 5 independent civilizations across the globe, domesticated agriculture originated  in the fertile crescent. 

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1500 BC

Fertile crescent develops competing scripts,

Egyptian Pyramids & Abu Simbel, hyrogylphics,

Assyrian cuniceform in BM (Iraq), Hanging Gardens in BM, Ishtar Gate

Minoan Knossos, Ship Fresco in National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Cannanites (Lebanon/Isreal), - Semitic language  

Towards the end of the Bronze Age that forms of Proto-Sinaitic script split into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet (c. 1400 BC), the undeciphered Byblos syllabary, and the Ancient South Arabian script (c. 1200 BC). Proto-Canaanite, which was probably influenced by the Byblos syllabary, in turn inspired the Ugaritic alphabet (c. 1300 BC).[62]. The Phoenician alphabet (c. 1050 BC), which was ultimately adapted into the Greek alphabet, is another direct descendant of Proto-Sinaitic.

 

and alphabet evolves into Arabic / Hebrew / Greek / Latin (modern) language & alphabet, They developed a  "Phonetic alphabet", simplifying writing by using isolated symbols for sounds, ideal for typesetting. 

Canaanites  were an ancient Semitic-speaking civilization, precursers  of Phonecian, Hebrew and Arabic.   Monotheist religions based on the founding prophet Abraham and described in Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, became established in the Hebrew speaking community probably while exiled in Babylon.  The Epic of Gilgamesh at the British Museum  dating to around 650 BC.—again, a copy of an earlier (fragmentary) story c 2200 BC The Epic of Gilgamesh discusses the Sumerian version of the great Flood as described in Genesis.​

Mittani (Syrian),

Hittites

https://timemaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/NewMiddleEast_1500BC.jpg

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1. Semitic Languages: Includes Arabic, Hebrew, originating from a common ancestral language.

2. Indo-European Influence: Persian (Farsi) and Kurdish are part of the Indo-Iranian branch, showcasing diverse linguistic heritage. Ancient Greek, and the other European languages have a common root. 

3. Turkic Languages: Turkish and Azerbaijani reflect the influence of Turkic migrations and cultures in the region.

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800 BC

Greek Archaic (settlements in Greece & W Turkey) became a center of intellectual discovery, starting with Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras of Samos 570 – c. 495 BC, democracy .  Built Acropolis, Agamemnon mask. What is often referred to as a "scientific revolution" took place in Ionia (western Anatolia, modern-day Turkey) in the 6th century BCE, and, it is thought, most likely because the Ionians were not as firmly anchored in traditions of the past as others in mainland Greece.

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Phonecian  (Lebanon) 0  Mediterranean trireme sea power,  seeds Carthage in Tunisia 

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Achaemenid (Persian) dominates Middle East from Egypt to Indus River. Underground Cappodocia,  Mausoleum at Halicarnassus 7 wonders in Bodrum Turkey. , Persepolis relics in BM.  Enables the return of the Jews to Isreal. 

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The Acheamenid  “Cyrus Cylinder” 500's BC is the centrepiece of Room 52 in the British Museum. Essentially is a version of what is documented in Ezra 1:1-3, where King Cyrus allows the Jews freedom under his rule to return to their homeland, rebuild the temple, and worship their God.

https://armstronginstitute.org/29-touring-the-bible-at-the-british-museum

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300  BC

Macedonian or Alexander the great, replaces Achaemid, spreading Greek learning, took over the Pharoes, built Luxor, Greek scholarship moves to Alexandria Claudius Ptolomy map in British Library a 13th century reconstruction, diameter of earth, astrolabe, heliocentric world.& Temple of Artemis Ephysus. Archimedes of Syracuse in Sicily c. 287 – c. 212 BC) was an Ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer,

Petra - Incense & Maritime Silk Road.

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50AD

Roman Empire takes over Europe  Roman UK in BM, Segovia Aqueduct in Spain then shrinks to Byzantium,   Library of Celos 110 BC- greek scholarship, Celos was a athiest ! & Stadium  Ephysus,

 

300 AD

Rise of Christianity  the second major Abrahamic religion started in Isreal and was originally documented in  Greek. It spread up through Ephysus to Constantinople . From AD 52–54, the apostle Paul lived for three years in Ephesus.

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Greek scholarship survived in the Greek speaking  Byzantine empire and Orthodox Christian church. Gospel & Church in Ephysus, Churches Cappodocia, exterior Hagia Sophia, The basilica of St. John was built during the reign of emperor Justinian I in the 6th century. Meteora started in the late 11th century and early 1100s, a rudimentary monastic state had formed, called the Skete of Stagoi, and it was centered around the still-standing church of Theotokos (Mother of God).[2] By the end of the 1100s, an ascetic community had flocked to Meteora monastries .

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800 AD

Rise of Islam, the third major Abrahamic religion started in Arabia and spread to Southern Spain by N. African Moors (Mezquita ) Córdoba became the capital of the Emirate and then Caliphate of Córdoba, from which the Umayyad dynasty ruled al-Andalus. It became a centre of education and learning,[7][8] and by the 10th century it had grown to be the second-largest city in Europe.  Also, continued Greek scholarship by  astronomers in Iran and Samarkand  (BM or Istambul AM.   Ottoman empire eventually dominated the Middle East  Istambul Mosque - ​

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1400 AD

Renaissance, catalyzed by the Medichi family in Florence, hedonisitic Pope Leo X, and the knowledge explosion of printing,  included re-discovery of Greek knowledge from Byzantines as the Ottomans take over. Georgios Gemistos Plethon was born in Constantinople circa 1355/1360 and reintroduced Greek scholarship.  Leonardo

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33 items plus 11 maps.   240 secs /40 = 6 sec each 

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