The ancient sites of Kolophon, Klaros and Notion

Choose to visit Ephesus, or to a lesser extent the spectacular acropolis of Pergamon, and you know that you are in for the usual tourist rigmarole -- entry points lined with tacky souvenir stalls and their importuning proprietors, heavy-duty entrance fees (TL 20 for both Ephesus and Pergamon) and coach loads of visitors being frog-marched through the site at high-speed by often disinterested-looking guides.

Of course, you have to visit these places -- they are incredibly popular with good reason -- but for a complete contrast, why not try to reach some of the off the beaten track sites, where you can sit on the time-worn stone seats of a Roman era theater in complete solitude or stumble across the tumbled remnants of an ancient Greek temple with only seagulls and tortoises for company? A trio of such sites, sharing the same valley and with a linked history stretching back over 3,000 years, lie a mere half-hour drive north of Selçuk (gateway town for Ephesus) or the busy resort/cruise ship port of Kuşadası. Despite their lovely and varied locations, ancient Kolophon, Klaros and Notion receive only a handful of visitors. What’s more, all of them are, for the moment at least, free.

Dogs of war -- Kolophon

Let’s begin with the site furthest from Selçuk, Kolophon, set in a picturesque valley near the large but tidy red-roofed village of Değirmendere. Wandering around the vestigial remains of this ancient city today, with views down between the pine and olive trees to the fertile plain of Cumaovası, it’s hard to believe that this was once a vibrant city famed for its luxurious living (its inhabitants were compared with the notorious Sybarites of Southern Italy). It was also well known to authors such as Bodrum-born Herodotus (sixth century B.C.) and Roman era scribes such as Strabo (born in Amasya) and Pliny. It’s Pliny who tells us that the inhabitants of Kolophon used squadrons of trained dogs against their enemies, finding them more reliable and cheaper than mercenaries -- dogs of war indeed. Dog-loving readers should, perhaps, skip the next part of this sentence, as another classical author, Pausanias, relates that the good citizens of Kolophon also sacrificed dogs (black bitches specifically) in honor of the three-headed goddess, guardian of gateways and crossroads, Hecate.

A trio of sites, sharing the same valley and with a linked history stretching back over 3,000 years, lie a mere half-hour drive north of Selçuk (gateway town for Ephesus) or the busy resort/cruise ship port of Kuşadası. Despite their lovely and varied locations, ancient Kolophon, Klaros and Notion receive only a handful of visitors

Apart from a section of Hellenistic wall, part of the defenses of the city erected when the declining city was re-founded by Lysimachus (one of the successors to Alexander the Great) in 281 B.C., there is little to see on the site apart from occasional limestone blocks of indeterminate function, and pottery shards scattered beneath the pines. From its earliest incarnation as an Ionian colony founded by settlers from mainland Greece in the 11th century B.C., nothing remains. The site was excavated in the early 1920s, but American investigations were brought to a halt by the Greek invasion of Anatolia.

Since then only local treasure seekers have put shovel to earth, and the holes and shallow trenches of their more recent efforts scar the hilltop of this unfenced, unguarded site. The spur on which ancient Kolophon stands is attractive though, with colorful anemones blooming in the dappled meadows beneath the ancient olive trees. There’s also a curiously eroded rock outcrop the local carpenter who was kind enough to show me the site called the “Şeytan Kaya” or “Devil’s Rock.” He and his friends had roamed all over the spur as youths, but he confessed that he’d last visited over 20 years ago and was curious to see what it was like today.

Consult the oracle -- Klaros

Of all the deities of the ancient Greek pantheon, Apollo has the most diverse attributes. He was the god of archery, the sun, music and poetry, healing and plague, and also of colonists -- the last particularly important for the Greeks who left the region around Athens from around 1100 B.C. onward and settled this part of the Aegean coast. But perhaps most importantly for the ancient Greeks, Apollo was the god of prophecy, the deity to whom they looked for advice about all kinds of matters (often, appropriately enough, about where to site their new settlements). The oracular shrine of Apollo at Delphi in Greece was the most important and another major oracle was at Didyma (modern Didim) on the coast not far south of Kuşadası. Today it boasts the remains of a magnificent temple of Apollo -- and is a major tourist draw. Few people, however, know about another Apollo temple, not far away at Klaros, which in ancient times was even more important than its better-known rival at Didyma.

Although it is much nearer the final destination on this three-stop itinerary, Notion, Klaros was actually on land belonging to the city of Kolophon and is one of the reasons why that city was so prosperous in ancient times. For then, as now, at places like Mecca and Lourdes, pilgrimage was big business and the visitors to the sacred sanctuary at Klaros contributed enormously to the local economy (purchasing food, accommodation, votive offerings and the like).

But what is there to see on the ground? Well, the first thing to note is that in winter and spring, the impressive jumble of tumbled columns, fallen statues and assorted ancient masonry of the temple of Apollo peek out alluringly from the mirror-like waters of a mini-lake, which has engulfed the sanctuary over the centuries, thanks to a rise in the water table. With swallows and martins dipping to drink from the still waters, flycatchers fluttering from overhanging branches to capture their prey and wagtails bobbing busily from one semi-submerged column drum to another, it makes an arresting sight. Add to this the backdrop of pine covered limestone peaks edging the valley in which the temple is set and, closer to hand, the citrus groves crowding gratefully around this munificent water source, and you begin to see why this is one of the most atmospheric ancient sites in Turkey.

The spring responsible for today’s flooded site in ancient times emerged into a sacred chamber underneath the temple. Visitors wishing to consult the oracle would descend a twin staircase to a passage leading to twin chambers. The enquirers would wait in awed silence in one chamber, whilst from the other a priest would utter the (notoriously ambiguous) advice of the god Apollo. The entryway to the passage can just be discerned beneath the placid waters. The site is still under excavation by a team from İzmir University in the summer months; visit then, and you may be able to enter the oracular chamber (the archaeologists use pumps to reduce the water table). A new ticket booth and toilet block (both locked in early April) suggest that the site will soon be pay to enter.

Beside the sea -- Notion

The site of ancient Notion, set on a grassy hilltop above the turquoise waters of the Aegean, is the most dramatically situated of this trio of sites. It’s also the trickiest to locate, as it lacks the white lettering on brown background signs that point the way to historic sites throughout Turkey. This is surprising, as there is far more to see (though don’t expect a mini-Ephesus!) than at Kolophon, which is signed. Driving south past Klaros, when you hit the coast road at the village of Ahmetbeyli, the remains are on the prominent hill just south and west of the junction.

Wandering across the deserted hilltop, with the waves crashing in on the rocks below, a refreshing wind rippling through the blossom-drenched trees and time-worn blocks of masonry emerging randomly from a sea of coarse grass and spring flowers, you feel a world away from the hordes at nearby (around seven kilometers) Ephesus. The setting is typical of those chosen by the early Greek settlers on the coast of Anatolia -- an easily defensible hilltop position, convenient access to the sea for trade and a fertile river valley below for water and agriculture. Like Kolophon, Notion prospered because of the pilgrims attracted by the oracle of Apollo at Klaros (although the oracle was on Kolophonian land, many visitors would have arrived by sea and Notion boasted a harbor whilst its rival was landlocked).

The most obvious remains are a small theater, which has never been excavated. It’s all the more romantic for that, with grass and spring flowers emerging from between the earthquake wracked tiers of seating and the lichen-crusted blocks of the stage building. Across a low saddle is a large, flat open area that was once the ancient city’s main agora (marketplace and civic center). Beyond this, set on the highest point of the long hilltop ridge, a stepped stone base and spangle of corrugated column drums mark the site of the temple of Athene. The views from here are splendid. To the north, rocky promontories unfurl above wave-dashed cliffs, and right beneath the hill nestles a strip of bleached white sand. Inland stretches a verdant valley where, just about discernible in the mass of greenery, lays Klaros. To the south, the marshes and beaches that mark the edge of the delta of the river Cayster (Küçük Menderes) fade into the distance. Beyond is bustling Kuşadası, and offshore, the hump of the Greek island of Samos rears from Homer’s “wine-dark sea.”

There are more obvious places to visit, but to butcher the slogan of a well-known beer advertisement, “Kolophon, Klaros and Notion reach the parts other sites can’t reach.”