Turkey 08 – St. Nicholas and Kale

Demre St Nicholas Church Santa Claus

Unfortunately, the threat of terrorism did have an impact on our trip. Due to the threats of ISIS kidnappings, we diverted from our original plans of going to Adiyaman and Sanliurfa. Always ready to react to changing circumstances and opportunities, Mehmet took us to Demre and his favorite fishing village, Kale instead.  This blog post is the last from our tour with Mehmet (from Fantastic Photo Tours).  His tour has been one of the best run we have experienced — in fact, we have tentatively planned on joining him in 2017 to tour three of the “-stan” countries (Kazakhstan, etc).  The details for that tour has not yet been finalized.

Yesterday, we drove to Demre, where we photographed the Church of St Nicholas. This is the burial place of St Nicholas, a 4th century bishop, who is considered the original Santa Claus.  The upper images, plus lower-right show some of the still-vibrant frescoes depicting the life of the saint. A young Turkish family arrived while we were there, also exploring the church.  Mehmet talked to the girl and her mother and convinced her to pose for us.  The result added a touch of color and size perspective to the center photograph of the nave.

Kale castle Turkey

We then took a boat to the tiny village of Kale, population approximately 45, and protected by the Turkish government as a historically significant site. Overlooking the village is the oldest (and smallest) castle in Turkey, initially built in the 4th century BC. Cannon emplacements attest to the fact that this castle was still in use more than a millennium later, when it was being used to protect against pirates entering the bay. Next to the castle is a Lycian graveyard and sarcophagus.

Kale Turkey people

Climbing the steep steps to the castle, we met a few village members. We asked the precocious girl in the upper-right how old she was.  She was obviously tired of hearing the same question repeatedly, and scowled at us (in Turkish), “I’m 6 already!”

The man (middle left) was steadily stripping oregano from the branches, to be sold in small bags to visitors of the fishing village. Throughout Turkey, we saw many variations of the Nascar talisman, intended to protect the wearer from the harm of an Evil Eye curse.  The lower-left was the handicraft version sold here.  Also, the owner of the restaurant had purchased an octopus from a fisherman in the morning, and offered to share his family’s dinner with us.

Kale Turkey Coast

On our final morning of the photo tour, we woke up to the sounds of the garbage man on a boat beneath us. Then a small squall started, turning into hail stones pounding on our rooftop, and the strong wind blowing the rain across the bay so the landscape was nearly obliterated.  We finished with a tour of the underwater ruins.

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