11 December ’04, Saturday. 10:10am and we were saying our “Good-bye’s” to our friends in Yalikavak. The last 30 days have really been a great addition to our journey and it wouldn’t have been the same if it weren’t for the people of Yalikavak and everyone else we have met in Turkey. I have said it once and I will say it again…”You’ve just got to take the time to visit Turkey if you haven’t yet been here !!! Of course there are always regrets, and ours is that we didn’t have a chance to visit the eastern end of Turkey… maybe some other time. Even though we have just left our friends, we have just finished one heck of a exciting day. The sun has been with us all day, but it has been cool and the wind has certainly made its appearance. I think it topped out about 65 and with the wind about 40 degrees. Other than that, we had a grand time. All the sites that we visited today, we were there by ourselves…no lines, no one standing in line of site for your picture taking, and no peddlers. We visited 4 sites and the total admission was 16 million Turkish lire ($11.00US). Our first stop happened just by chance…as we were heading down the highway towards Didyma, Louise just happened to see some Roman ruins along side of the road. Then she let out this “Hold it…Turn around !!!” Back in the woods there was a wonderful series of pillars standing high, and she wanted to see them. Euromos… The remains consist of 15 tall columns and some look like they were never completed. Most were fluted totally and others were partially or not at all. This was a temple that changed deities more than once. With the coming of the Greeks and then the Roman culture. The Romans worshiped the God of Zeus here. This was constructed by Mausolus in the periods of 376-353 BC. Mausolus was the King who moved the capitol to Bodrum and built the enormous white marble tomb for himself in Bodrum that we wrote about late last month. The remainder of the city is found further up and down the hill, but we opted not to explore any further as there apparently isn’t much left to see except a lot of ruins spread all through the olive trees now occupying the land.