EXPLORING THE KAUNOS RUINS | Greek and Roman Ruins and Lycian Rock Tombs near Dalyan Mugla Turkey

Good morning. It's a gorgeous Saturday and we are going on an adventure. We're going to go try to find the ancient city. So right now we are on a mission. We're walking down the Dalian Riverside. We've been told that there is a row boat that can take us across to the other side, which is where the ruins are. We have found the row boats and we are just waiting our turn to get on one now to go over to count us. We've just gotten off the boat coming across the river and look what is right behind me as soon as we come off the boat. So part of the reason that we came over here was to see the rock tombs and of course you can see them from the road. They're high and they're gorgeous and they're spectacular. But right behind us there's a sign that says that's the way leading to the rock tombs and there is a locked gate. So we'll keep going and see if there's another way to access it. Otherwise we're going to go explore the ruins of the city. It's been about 45 minutes since we last talked and we are now seven and a half minutes into our walk. It's taken this long because Angela felt like she needed to stop to film donkeys. And we've made it on to the site of the ruins of the city of Kaunos. This city has a really long history. The archaeologists say that it's been continuously inhabited since about the ninth century BC. Since then it has been in control of the indigenous people of this place. On to the Greeks, the Persians, the Greeks, the Persians again, the Romans. So it kind of very much reflects the history of this area of the world. So Kaunos was inhabited for approximately 10,000 years. This building that we're standing in is one of the more recent buildings. It was a church built in the sixth century AD and it had a domed basilica and is one of the earliest examples of this type of building in the area. So Kaunos used to be a very important place for the Greeks to live and to trade. It used to be a major trading port. It was right by the ocean and since then the river behind us, the Dalian river had laid down so much silt that it brought this city about eight kilometers from the ocean. Behind me is the entrance to the arena here. There's an amphitheater, a Greek style amphitheater that seated up to 5,000 people. This amphitheater is very cool and also very deserted. The only people here are Jeff, myself, and several goats, which seem to be really at home here. They just kind of walking up and down the stairs, grazing on the greenery. I'm a little bit scared of them, but they're pretty cool. How cool is this? We're presently on a pathway that would have led to the old Harbor front here in the ancient town of Kaunos and that's Angela back there. So this structure behind me started out its life in the first century AD as a temple of Zeus. Like a lot of the buildings in this area, once the area was converted to Christianity, it became a church. So this whole area here that we were in was the main public marketplace or the Agora. And this building behind me was a fountain. And what's cool is that this wall was facing the main trading Harbor here and inscribed all along this wall are the customs regulations. How cool is this? We're about a hundred meters away from the fountain building that Angela was standing in front of with the inscriptions on the side of the building. And back behind me is what is now the Dalyan river. This at one point in time would have been the Harbor front. The Mediterranean would have run all the way into this area here. So trying to give you a bigger, fuller look of what the whole Agora was. It's quite a large space here. And according to the signage here, there's only been about 20% of this area that's been excavated thus far. Fun fact, we're lost. It's one 30 the sun is right above us. It's blaring hot and we're just kind of wandering around this brush land area because we thought we saw an exit sign. We saw an exit sign. There's just, they're not telling us where it's at right now that we've got down here. Just wandering. We just left the park, but it led us to an exit that appears to be absolutely nowhere near the place where we entered. Uh, it's quite deserted. There is really nothing around and nothing recognizable, uh, as to how we got here. So wish us luck in getting back back to the town of Dalida. Okay. We're way the hell out here in Turkey somewhere. We have no idea where we are right now. Uh, but we're just kind of walking in the direction. We think we need to be going in. Uh, wish we could show you cause the rock tombs, which we should be walking alongside of almost looks like you're on the other side of the river right now. Don't ask me how we would have ended up here. We've made it back over to Dalyan. Uh, we got tired of trying to find that walk around there and just went ahead and paid another 20 lira to get ourselves right back across the river. So we're back at least in Dalyan, a little bit of a walk ahead of us still, but at least we're here. Just got back to the Airbnb and had a nice cold shower. A shout out to the guy who found us wandering lost and showed us where to find a boat to get back into town. Uh, so leave a comment below and let us know how you like the video. And don't forget to like, and subscribe to see what happens next.