October 25, 2007:
Reception at Vadi, Ciftlikkoy Campus, Mersin University, 18:00-21:00.
(Payment included in registration fee)
October 26, 2007:
Conference Dinner at Ali Baba Restaurant, 20:00-23:00.
(20 € will be paid for the dinner)
Press the links to see the pictures of the restaurant.
October 27, 2007:
Sight seeing tour and lunch at the fishermen's bay in Narlıkuyu
(35 € will be paid for all )
The route:
Leaving from Mersin - Mersin1 Mersin2
Kanlıdivane (Kanytelleis - Place of Bloodshed) Kanlıdivane1 Kanlıdivane2 Kanlıdivane3 Kanlıdivane4 Kanlıdivane5 Kanlıdivane6
Cennet - Cehennem (Heaven - Hell) Cennet1 Cennet2 Cennet3 Cennet4 Cennet5 Cehennem1 Cehennem2
Kızkalesi (Maiden Castle) Kızkalesi1 Kızkalesi2 Kızkalesi3 Kızkalesi4
Narlıkuyu Narlıkuyu1 Narlıkuyu2
Lunch in Narlıkuyu
Returning to Mersin
Kanlıdivane is a fearsome swallow hole, around which
stand Roman and Byzantine buildings. The most striking
of the sights here is undoubtedly the stone figures who
have sat unmoving for centuries on the south wall of the
pit. They perhaps represent an emperor with his empress
and family. According to legend prisoners were thrown
into the pit to be eaten by lions, watched by the local
nobility, hence the name Kanlıdivane or Place of
Bloodshed.
Cennet (Heaven) and Cehennem (Hell). Both these huge
pits were created by the collapse of the roofs of
caverns gouged out of the limestone by underground
rivers. Cennet is the largest, measuring 200 metres
wide and 70 metres deep. A flight of 452 steps dating
from the Roman period leads down to the bottom.
At the 300th step is the Church of St Mary, built in the
5th or 6th century at the mouth of a cave. This is the
mouth of an enormous cave system, and as you penetrate
deeper inside, if you put your ear to the rock wall you can
hear the sound of the rushing underground river. It was
this river which ancient people called the Styx,
and believed to flow through the underworld of
the dead.A short way from Cennet is Cehennem,
a pit which is far more intimidating in appearance.
Although only 50 metres wide, Cehennem is
120 metres deep and has sheer sides impossible to
descend. When you see it, you are in no doubt that
Hell is an appropriate name for this gaping
hole in the earth. Mythology relates that when Zeus
defeated the hundred headed monster Typhon,
he imprisoned it here.
Kız Kalesi, or Maiden's Castle, lies 200 metres offshore
on a tiny islet. The view of a castle surrounded by water is
so striking, that one tends not to notice the second castle
facing it on dry land. Both castles used to keep watch
over Corycus, one of the most important ports of the
Eastern Mediterranean in the middle ages. Both castles
were built in the early 12th century during the Byzantine
period by Armenian kings of the Rubenian dynasty, and
once upon a time were linked by a wall which stretched
out to sea. Maiden's Castle was constructed on the tiny
island of Crambusa, which was a pirate stronghold.
According to the legend which lent the castle its popular
name, a king living in Mersin to the east of here
prayed night and day that God might grant him a daughter.
Finally his wish came true, and a beautiful daughter
was born to him. As she grew older, she won everyonful
love, not only for her beauty but for her kindness.
One day a fortune teller came to the city, and the
king invited her to the palace to learn what the future
held in store. When the fortune teller looked at the
princess' hand, she fell silent. The king insisted on
hearing what she had seen, and she told him that
his daughter would be bitten by a snake and die.
Her father was determined to do everything in his
power to avert this fate, and so he built a castle of
white stone on a tiny island 60 kilometres
away, and sent his daughter to live there. One day,
however, a snake concealed in a basket of grapes sent
from the palace bit the princess and she died.
Henceforth the castle became known as Maiden's Castle.
Narlıkuyu is famous for its fish restaurants.
Turkey's smallest museum is in Narlıkuyu. Yet it contains
one of the world's wonders: a mosaic depicting
three beautiful women dating from the 4th century BC.
When Poimeinos, Roman commander of the Princes
Islands in Istanbul, built baths here, he had its floor laid
with a mosaic depicting the semi-divine sisters Aglaia,
Thalia and Euphrosyne. This picture of three beauties
who loved enjoying themselves and giving pleasure to
others arouses the same wonder in us today as it must
have done those who first saw it two and a half thousand years ago.
