UNEARTHING ANTIQUITIES
Laura is the Editor-in- Chief of Dispatches and traveled to Turkey in April of 2023 .
Right : This marble statue of a dancing women was unearthed in Perge and now resides in the Antalya Museum .
In my defense , we had just come from Cappadocia . Having never been to the American Southwest ( I know , I know !), I was captivated by the rock formations , and ranked our long hike there among the most beautiful of my life . The entire three-night stay felt like a grand finale at the beginning of the trip . I had similarly high hopes for the gulet cruise along the Turquoise Coast , which would be our next stop . These two destinations alone had prompted me to choose Turkey ’ s Magical Hideaways , my first trip with O . A . T . since the pandemic .
In between them ? Antalya — a city for which I had zero expectations , positive or negative . Which taught me a valuable lesson : Sometimes , the absence of expectations leaves all the more space for surprises .
UNEARTHING ANTIQUITIES
The morning after our inauspicious arrival , I awoke in Liberace ’ s pool house ( lovely , really , if that happens to be your style ) to
discover the rain had ceased — and with it , my temporary lapse in optimism . I scolded myself for being a brat when I was so lucky to be here — to be anywhere , really — and set out to embrace the day .
It began with a meeting with a retired archaeologist — an absolute delight of a man who had unearthed important discoveries at the ancient city of Perge . Tomorrow , we would see the ruins of the city itself : a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Hittite roots that came under Roman rule in around 200 B . C . First , though , we visited the Antalya Museum , which houses the antiquities removed from the site . Browsing the collection , I recognized several of the statues that the archaeologist had spoken about that morning , including a dancing woman with swirling skirts that appeared frozen in motion , dating from the second century A . D .
But I paused longest in front of a grouping of small metal artifacts that had been excavated from a burial mound , presumed to be as old as the seventh century B . C . Our guest had described this particular discovery with such passion , such pride — I couldn ’ t help but feel a little surge of excitement upon discovering it for myself .
Far Right : The archaeologist who discovered this collection of artifacts met with O . A . T . travelers to discuss his life ’ s work .
26 DISPATCHES • JUNE 2023