Textiles and hand crafts play an important role in the most basic of economies and Turkey is well known for its carpet industry.
On our way to Izmer (Smyrna), we took a detour to a tiny weaving village where women shear the sheep, wash and dye the wood with natural dyes, card it, spin it on a small spindle and double knot it on a vertical set of woolen strands in order to create the most colorful and durable carpets. With hands flying, these women can tie a lot of knots in the blink of an eye. It took me several seconds to tie one!
Next we visited a cooperative where carpets from several villages were on sale in one large warehouse. They really were stunning but since we were not in the market for a $2400 souvenir today we opted out of the sales pitch and we waited outside for the others while they gathered their wares.
Rafet, the Amazing, maneuvers our monster-of-a-bus with the flexibility of a gymnast and so he once again took us from remote, cobbled and tiny to the busy city streets of Bergamum. It’s where the Pergamum acropolis sits on atop the highest point in the city. The ruins are more recognizable than Troy’s and the layers of construction indicate habitation from ancient Hellenistic to the late Roman and Byzantinium era.
Our guide warns us about the snakes hiding in the holes around the site so we step carefully. Our Vancouver tour mate, Valerie, had one cross her path at the temple of Athena the other day and none of us wanted a repeat experience.
We arrived in Izmir in the early evening and ate dinner together at a well known kebob joint. The food was very good.
Tomorrow, Sardis.
