Great Journey 🏍 Day 307
Today we make ourselves really cosy and warm. In sunny 35° Celsius we boot from Çıralıs Bay to the eternal flames of Chimaira.
OK, we probably hadn't heard that it's 30 minutes of steep uphill. But it can't be that bad. It wasn't, after all it doesn't matter if you're just warm or warm from climbing. Warm is warm.
Instead of one large expected flame, there are many small ones on a larger rock field. The flames have been fed by natural gas through small fissures in the rock since ancient times. Supposedly the flames were much bigger, they probably served the sailors for orientation. Maybe someone turned the gas tap on low - who knows. Today the flames are only enough to grill the sausages or marshmallows we brought along. Of course we didn't bring any. But we will survive.
By the way, this was the home of the legendary chimera. A monster with a lion's head,
goat's body and a snake for a tail, until it was killed by Bellerophon with the support of the winged wonder horse Pegasos. Must have been a long time ago too, we only saw two cats and heard thousands of cicadas.
Besides being the home of Chimera, this was also a cultic place: the Greeks, when they were still here, worshipped their fire god Hephaistos here, the Romans his successor Vulcanus. We worship the inventor of the drinking bottle here, because: the small fires bring additional warmth.
#Chimaira #cirali #Çıralı #ewyFlames #burningMountain
