Priene

Our family onstage in the ampitheater

There are so many ancient Greek cities dotting the Aegean Coast. With our three boys, and limited time and energy we had to pick and choose which ones to do, and which ones to leave out. We will hopefully be able to come back another time, and see some of the ones we missed. 

For now though, we decided to include Priene, and I'm so glad we did. 

(I know, I say that about all of them. What can I say? It was a very good trip!)

Priene is one of the most "untouched" of the ruins. Meaning, there has not been much that has been moved around and gussied up for the tourists. It has been destroyed mainly by multiple earthquakes through the years, and things are left literally where they fell. It was really pretty awesome. 

Settled in 450BC, we were impressed.

Porter in front of the Temple of Athena-

supervised and financed by Alexander the Great when he was living here.

Priene was one of the cities that Alexander the Great called home (making it one of the cities that had very strong Greek ties.) Many of these ancient cities were kept up and had easy transition to Roman rule. Because of these strong ties though, Priene was not look on in favor by the Romans. It fell into disrepair and was even abandoned by the Byzantine period. Thus, making it one of the most intact settlements of it's kind. 

Another reason it has perhaps remained untouched-

it is kind of a pain to get too!

It is situation on a mountaintop much like Pergamum, however this one does not have a gondola.

 Just lots and lots of stairs! 

Now, it wasn't too bad but it was definitely more of a hike than we were planning on! 

The boys just loved being outside and exploring though, so they took off and didn't seem to mind.

(Imagine these steps like 5 times over)

The boys, especially Ronan-were in heaven! Roni could hardly contain himself. There were so many places to hide and things to climb on almost immediately. He just had to stop and climb nearly the second we got to the top!

Let's see, if all three of us push….

Like I said, all these columns just rolled to where they lay. 

They were made for climbing I think, just look at the easy hand and foot grips! 

You'll notice Porter's new friend: Cameron the Camel. 

We picked him up along the way-and Porter insisted he now be in all the photos.

(this area of Turkey is famous for it's Camel Wrestling!)

I loved this one of Ronan. All on his own, has decided to try really hard and push with his head too!

He had a big red mark on his head after that. Ha!

The ampitheater was in awesome condition. It had all these fancy seats around the front on either side of the alter. I guess they essentially amount to "front row seats". From what I understand, different people were chosen to get to sit there by the community leaders. 

There is also one of the few surviving alters in Priene. 

We being the fun tourists that we are, just had to get one pic.
Don't worry, no children were harmed in the making of this photo!

Porter is always a great sport, well as long as Cameron the Camel could also be on the alter!

Ok, now that you've survived the rest of our journey, I promise the last post from our vacation will be on Ephesus…
Saving the best for last!