My First Visit to One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

The ruins of the Temple of Artemis in Selçuk

I finally visited my first of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. One down. Two to go!

Walking from the road back to the ruins of the Temple of Artemis was this building, the Türbe, an ancient tomb from the very early Ottoman period. Who was buried inside has been lost to those ravages, savages, cabbages of time.

Now, why did I say Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and then add" "One down. Two to go!" Because only three of the seven still exist in any form whatsoever. The Great Pyramid of Giza, in Egypt, is the only one that still exists relatively intact.

The Temple of Artemis is one of two that still exists. Both of these exist in an extreme state of ruin. The other one of the three remainder Wonders is the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, near Bogrum, now a beach resort in the southwest corner of Anatolia (Asian) Turkey. But I'm not in a beach resort on the Turkish coast. I'm in Selçuk. And here we have the Temple of Artemis.

The column is a reconstruction. It has not survived intact since the Greek era. But it was reconstructed from the actual stones on site, so it the real deal, just the real deal re-arranged. 

The temple ruins, however, are 100 percent the real thing.

You do get a sense of the layout of the actual temple. And an idea of what one the columns framing the temple would have looked like.

Hey, it's more than you can see of the Colossus of Rhodes, thank you very much.

And it really did feel somewhat magical to see my first of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

And that's your proof.

There is a cross design on that one stone in the foreground:

I don't know if that's coincidental or from the early (very early) Christians who inhabited Ephesus at the time very soon after the crucifixion.

The next stop on the walking tour will be more ruins, this time being the ruins of an early hamam. But first:

The Kılıç Aslan Cami, a mosque I am passing on the short walk from the Temple of Artemis ruins to the İsabey Turkish Bath-hamam.

And there it was. Surrounded in chain link fence. But I heard (read) that even though it was unattended, you could walk in and explore the ruins.

And, sure enough, there was a wide opening in the chain link fence and no ticket booth in sight. So in I walked.

And here I am.

This was the hamam built to accompany the first mosque in this town, which would have been very early in the Ottoman Era, as Anatolian Turkey was converting from Orthodox Christianity to Islam almost simultaneously with the Reconquista in Spain, where the Iberian Peninsula was being converted from Islam to Roman Catholicism.

It is no longer a functioning hamam, so no risk of running into fat tourists wrapped in peshtemals.

It was, in my opinion, absolutely awesome. Here, as you can see, is a hole in the roof.

View lowered to still show the hole in the roof, but also some of the interior design.

You want to avoid the tourist horde? There was no one but me walking through these amazing ruins.

The holes in the roof visible in this photo were intentional.

These were to let light into the hamam, the Turkish bath house, and to allow ventilation. That's just the way we did things before central ventilation and electric lighting.

I feel clean. I feel purefied. What I did not feel was unsafe. The stone walls were sturdy, the floor was hard earth. There was at least one person on the other side of the chain link fence that saw me in there and I did not get yelled at, from which I concluded my presence was A-OK.

Incredible. Fascinating. Historic. And I had it all to myself. The off-the-beaten-path tourist's dream. Time to go out and explore more of Selçuk.

Free Walking Tour of the Old City of Sarajevo Day

The Latin Bridge in Sarajevo. This is where it all started. And by "all," I mean "all."

Today was the day to do the free walking tour through the place where the history of the 20th Century began on June 28, 1914: Sarajevo.

But, first, there can be no free walking tour through the historic core of Old Sarajevo unless I leave my hotel. And the hotel looks impressive in the sunlight.

This is the Isa Begov Hamam and Hotel, just across the Miljacka River from the core of the old city. It occupies a site that was the first hamam in Sarajevo after the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, so this dates back to 1462. The building suffered tremendously in various wars and natural disasters until, finally, about 15 years ago, it was fully restored to be the boutique you see above.

The Miljacka River is more decorative than functional:

This building might be the Emperor's Mosque:

It is right next to my hotel. I walked past it on my short walk to the start of the free walking tour, but the designated walking tour had not yet begun -- only my personal walk to the walking tour -- so I got no description of what building this is or its history. But there is a lot of history in the old city.

More of the Miljacka River:

There is a tram system that loops around the old vity:

And this is the view of the Latin Bridge from the next bridge upstream.

For a place so fraught with history, it's interesting to see people treat the Latin Bridge as just a bridge:

Cats, too:

But this is quite literally where the history of the 20th Century began on June 28, 1914, right at this spot:

Those footprints represent the place where Gavrilo Princip was standing when, through a bizarre series of events, he found himself standing right in front of the stalled, open-air vehicle in which Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife Sophie. He fired his pistol twice. The Archduke and his wife were mortally wounded. And the world changed forever and irrevocably.

This event and this corner of this city was the catalyst for unleashing series of events that defined the 20th Century:  World War I; the end of monarchies and empires in Europe; the rise of communism; the rise of Hitler; World War II; the end of Europe as the center of global power; the destruction of faith in the western experiment. All because of two pistol shots in Sarajevo.

Control of Bosnia, at that time, had passed from the Sick Man of Europe, the dying Ottoman Empire, to the "not quite as sick" Austro-Hungarian Empire. Apparently some Bosnians were OK with this because Austria-Hungary represented an upgrade from being under the thumb of the dying Ottoman regime. But Princip was not. He was part of a small group of ... activists? ... guerillas? ... terrorists? ... who wanted to foment rebellion and allow for an independent nation of unified southern Slavs. Ironically, Princip's actions brought about what he wanted, the creation after the end of World War II of the modern state of Yugoslavia. 

There is more to Sarajevo than being the flashpoint where World War I started. And there is more than being the center of the Bosnian War in the mid 1990's.

This is the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque, which dates back to the 16th Century:

This fountain is the foot-washing station for the mosque. It's also a source for drinking water out of the same taps as one can use for foot-washing water.

And before someone thinks that it is gross to drink from a tap people use to wash their feet, we've all drank water from the bathroom sink tap that we use to wash our hands and face, so get over it.

This is the clock tower next to the Gazi Husrev-beg Mosque:

The time at the top is not regular time, it is solar time, with the day beginning not at an arbitrary point that roughly approximates the middle of the night, but with the sunset, as the religious day for Moslem is solar. It's true for us Catholics, too -- the Jewish also -- where religious days begin at sundown. The clock has to be adjusted a couple of times per week because the relationship between the earth and the sun is not static.

We now are about to enter the part of the old city dedicated to souvenir stands:

Peace has come to Sarajevo. There is nothing wrong with making a little money.

This is another site that is critically important to the events of June 28, 1914: the Old City Hall:

The Archduke Ferdinand was riding in an open-air vehicle in a parade-like motorcade when he drove past the Texas Schoolbook Depository. Sorry, wrong open air vehicle. Wrong assassination. The Archduke was, in fact, riding in a parade-like motorcade that day. The parade route was numerous potential assassins along it, all associated with the same group of Bosnian radicals as Princip. One of the assassins tossed a grenade at the car in which the Archduke was riding, but the grenade bounced off that vehicle and into the vehicle immediately behind it. That vehicle was carrying a number of important military officials. The grenade then exploded causing multiple injuries and deaths. Franz Ferdinand then was rushed to safety at the Old City Hall.

If he had just stayed there that day, after that incident, it likely would not have been the catalyst for World War I although, who knows, since Austria-Hungary was itching for a fight with the independent Republic of Serbia. But Franz Ferdinand did not stay put in the safety of City Hall. He wanted to go to the hospital to check on his injured comrades.

But not this hospital:

That now-abandoned building then was a military hospital on a bluff overlooking Sarajevo. If that had been the hospital to which the injured military officials had been taken, Franz Ferdinand would have been secure. Instead, the military officials were taken to the main city hospital. The Archduke wanted to visit them. The Archduke's driver was given conflicting directions about a new, more secure route to take to get the Archduke (and his wife Sophie) to the hospital. The driver took a wrong turn near the Latin Bridge and his vehicle came to a stop as the driver attempted to recalculate the route. And standing right there, at a delicatessen across from the Latin Bridge, where Franz Ferdinand's car came to a stop, was a man who thought his only chance at assassinating the Archduke had passed him by.

A whole lot of events had to go horribly wrong for all of this to happen. But they did happen and the world changed forever.

These are old city walls:

And this is the only man besides Marshall Tito who could unite the Yugoslavian nation:

Nikola Tesla at a restaurant bearing his name. A Serb born in Croatian territory, so all of the Yugoslavian people could claim this genius as their own. And what do you think Tesla was thinking here? Maybe about how the Great Pyramids of Egypt were actually massive electrical generators ...

This is the Orthodox Church of the Nativity of the Theotokos, the largest orthodox cathedral in Sarajevo:

And for us papists, the main Catholic church in Sarajevo:

Sacred Heart Cathedral.

With a statute of Saint John Paul II:

And we will end with an poignant and artsy photo:

Throughout Sarajevo, there are what they call "Sarajevo roses." These are holes in the pavement representing where mortal shells exploded during the Bosnian War on the 1990's. They've painted them red where there were deaths at that site from the explosion. This would have been one such place. In front of the main Catholic cathedral.