Turkish Mosaic circuit. Day 2 (300 kilometre distance covered).

5th October 2010
Anamur - Kizkalesi - Mersin

We headed eastwards on our way to  Anamur to visit Mamure, an old crusade castle, considered as one of the nicest  in Asia Minor, having been built by the Romans in the third or fourth Century AD and later enlarged by the Bizantine Empire and the Crusaders.

In one of its three courtyards there is an ancient Mosque with a Minaret built in 1300-1308, which is apparently still being used.

Mamure castle walls (Left).  The ancient Mosque within the Mamure castle walls (Right).

What impressed me most apart from its well preserved state of conservation, was the amazingly beautiful view one could have from its walls onto the sea.

Anamur is Turkey's southernmost point and part of its coast is said to have been given by Mark Anthony to Cleopatra as a wedding present. The fact that some of the characters whose life stories fueled  our imagination as young adolescents are connected to this, has added a touch of "graciousness" to what the eyes can see.

View from the Mamure castle walls.

Our guide Ramazan, a former school teacher of French, has had us repeat some words in Turkish after him over these last two days,  in a rather old style  oriented methodology, which  somehow seems to be having some sort of beneficial effect, as by now we can already say good morning, good afternoon, thank you, very much and count up to five  ... but what's more impressive is that we can do it simultaneously in a choir like unisonous voice, as if we were 5 year old children attending primary school for the first time ... we all want to impress ...

We have also visited Kizkalesi, a crusader castle floating 150 metres ashore, which we reached by having taken a small boat. According to the legend, it was built by a King, who had been told his daughter would die from a snake bite.

In a drastic attempt to twist his child's fate, he had this "Maiden's castle" constructed, but she ended up being bitten by a snake, which slithered its way into a basket of grapes that happened to have been sent to the island ...  and died.

Kizkalesi  (Right). Korykos castle remains (Left).

The Byzantine built Korykos Castle remains could be seen on the left of the small boats anchorage point, but we still had a long way to Mersin, where we would be staying over night, therefore its visit was not included in today's programme.

Let's see what tomorrow's programme holds for us ...