In the now truly picturesque landscape through which we are travelling, nestled in olive groves and surrounded by the Aydın Mountains, lies Şirince. The village is eight kilometres east of Selçuk and close to historic Ephesus. Oh, we have to go there too!
The village stroll takes a whole 20 minutes. We have a bite to eat and go to bed early. Tomorrow it's "Ancient stones in Ephesus" for us.
The history of Şirince is characterised by myths and traditions. It is believed that the town was originally founded by Ephesians under the name Solmissos, who fled to the mountains after the conquest by Timur.
Another story tells of Greek slaves who called the place Çirkince (Turkish for "ugliness") to keep out unwanted settlers.
Another theory refers to 40 freed slaves, after whom the place was originally called Kırkinca (Turkish for "forty").
I see.
In 1926, the then governor of Izmir, Kazım Dirik, gave the village its current name Şirince, which means "friendliness" in Turkish and symbolised a new beginning.
Until 1924, Şirince was mainly inhabited by Christian Greeks and served as an important trading centre for the surrounding monasteries. It was also considered a religious centre, associated with the legend that the Virgin Mary ascended to heaven here.
After the Greek-Turkish War of 1919-1922, the Greek inhabitants were expelled in a major resettlement operation and replaced by Turks who had been expelled from the Thessaloniki and Kavala area.
Our travel guide still mentions wine growing and figs. There is plenty of wine here, but it is no longer grown in these mountains. We can imagine that the figs are more likely, after all we see many fig trees, unfortunately bare right now in winter.
On the serpentine path up here, we find a water source that provides us with really good water for once. What is really good water? Water without the taste of chlorine. The water pressure is not sufficient to fill it with the hose, but we still have the canisters from Tunisia, which provide us with valuable services here.
Merci for "travelling with us
We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.
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