Roman Ruins!!!!

Today, I walked on Roman ruins!!!!! 

We had breakfast in a garden this morning, then Todd took us to Antandros, the site of an ancient Roman city. OH MY!!! I could not believe it. Just a few miles north of Gure, we turned onto a dirt road that led into an olive grove. We got out of the car and were greeted by a man. I was afraid that he was telling Todd we could not go any further, but he actually was welcoming us. He is an archeologist working on this site, and he gave us a wonderful tour.

The settlement in the area was established 2000BC, but the ruins are from around 480AD, toward the end of the Roman empire. The builders of this villa, Romans who were pagan, and wealthy slave owners, came to this area to escape the influence of Christianity. They feared the equality and value of all humans, taught by Christians, would mean the end to slavery and the society they had.  After the Roman Empire was divided into East and West segments, and Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Eastern section, the influence of Christianity spread, so the family  later moved to Europe, taking everything they could.

The villa was used by the Bysantines in the following years, but they used it as homes for several families, and animals, and, eventually, an olive grove was planted on top of the ruins. In 2000, archeologists began to excavate the area and have uncovered incredible treasures.  

The excavation site is covered with an aluminum roof, and has a walkway around it. Normally tourists have to stay on the walkway, but today, the governor is coming, so a carpet was on the actual tile hallway floor of the villa, and our guide allowed us to walk on it. We walked RIGHT INTO THE VILLA, INTO THE ENTRY ROOM OF THE HOUSE. 

At first, it was just Les, Todd, and myself on the tour, but we were quickly joined by a young man and woman on holiday from Istanbul. Both of them were architects, and the woman was an expert in architectural restoration. Really. And, they both spoke English. This tour could not have been more fascinating. I will just show you some pictures.

This is the mosaic tile floor in the hallway, which went the length of the villa, with individual rooms opening off the main hall. 

  These pictures are from the first room, which was the entry and greeting room for the villa. This room had murals on the wall, picture of the family, of their servants, and things they owned, so that all guests would know of the family's wealth.

 

 This is the mosaic tile in the entry room, which was highly symbolic in the pagan, shamanistic religion. The blue triangles represent life, and they flow in toward the medallion in the middle, which shows two birds resting on an urn, indicating that a person would receive everything they asked for. The white triangles represent death, flowing away from the birds.

 

 

 
Something goofy happened when I uploaded the pictures, so most of them are not showing.  The ruins were incredible. I even took pictures of the remains of indoor plumbing!
 What a gift to be able to see them.