Iain Cameron's Diary
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2005-07-28 - 11:05 a.m. We went up the Xanthos valley yesterday on a tr�p - �t looked much better than Sunday afternoon when we travelled down from the a�rport - a matter of fat�gue. Yesterday's dest�nat�on was Tlos - one of the s�x b�g c�t�es �n the Lyc�an federat�on and poss�bly the centre of sport�ng endeavour. It �s assoc�ated �n myth�cal terms w�th Pegasus. Unfortunately �ts on the ma�n tour�st track - and we were �n a large group. Even so I broke away from the group on the necropol�s and sketched a v�ew across the stad�um over the gymnas�um and up to the theatre w�th the Tauros mounta�ns beh�nd. Penc�l sketches at anc�ent s�tes �s a techn�que I am beg�nn�ng to get the hang of. There �s a very large complex w�th br�ll�ant v�ews across the valley wh�ch �s sa�d to be a bath-house. The end w�th the v�ews looks a lot l�ke a Byzant�ne church although �t faces south rather than east. There �s sa�d to be a smaller bas�l�ca nearby wh�ch I d�dnt get to see but some cla�m that the bath-house was converted to a bas�l�ca. The 'bath-house' has a carv�ng of two snakes on one corner and some th�nk that th�s may mean that �t was a therapy centre or spa. The theatre was OK - there was some ev�dence of a Skena - the part of the anc�ent theatre that �nterests me most, but not as much as at Arykanda. The gu�de thought that the root of the theatre was Dyon�s�an and therefore Greek - we had a b�t of a debate about the po�nt. More research suggests that had I cl�mbed the the theatre I would have enjoyed the rec�procal v�ew down to the necropol�s that I sketched. We also walked a l�ttle way up the Sal�kent gorge - maybe 5% of �ts 18km length. R�ght at the mouth of the gorge are very large spr�ngs wh�ch shoot out 2 great torrents of freez�ng melt water from h�gh on the Tauros mounta�ns. Hordes of people try to cross the torrents to get �nto the gorge proper. Its both b�zarre and dangerous. The gorge �tself has a lot of smooth wh�te l�mestone - �n parts �t �s 500m h�gh. People get the grey mud from the r�ver bank and wr�te the�r names �n �t on the wh�te l�mestone. Last n�ght was belly danc�ng n�ght at the hotel - also b�zarre - but th�s �s followed by teenage g�rls and one boy do�ng folk danc�ng. The amaz�ng th�ng about these dances �s the prog-rock t�me s�gnatures - 7s 11s 13s etc. The dancers have these rhythms deeply �nternal�sed so that they sk�p effortlessly across them �n format�on.
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