____ WhereIsHolden?: temple

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Efes Ephesus and Pamukkale Springs

(There’s no particular reason that I’m in all the photos on this post! We didn’t take a ton of photos this day, I guess!)
Playing backgammon on a sizeable board in Efes / Ephesus

Ephesus was incredible to walk around, due to the excavations that have been done there, but by the same token, much of Turkey has this much history that simply hasn’t be excavated yet, so in that case, it’s not particularly special. Also good to keep in mind that the city on display is only about 2000 years old (though there are more city fragments below the stuff we saw).

Pamukkale has some excellent formations from mineral springs, though you can only enter some of the man-made springs; at least they did a great job with those as well:

This is the amphitheater from Heriapolis – we loved how the stage had been rebuilt, including the finished orchestra / fighting area, the stage, backstage, and below stage, etc. It would be amazing to see a performance at this theater currently (not sure if they do any of that)

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Bali Temples and Inland Activities

There are temples everywhere in Bali. Public temples, village temples, private house temples, you name it. Here’s my Adventure Buddy at a “floating” temple. (Just a temple built within a pond, with various stepping stones and walkways to/from the banks to the temple.)

This is a private mini-temple; I’ve zoomed in on the bees nest that is found inside. I wonder if the bees know they’re sacred?

This is one of the more ornate temples that we visited (though not adorned in gold): Gunung Kawi Temple. You might recognize it from the professional video that I linked to in this post about a Kecak Trance Dance.