Customer Reviews

The Western Shores of Turkey: Discovering the Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts

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This is a great followup to the Blue Guide for Turkey but is focused on the Western Aegean shores of Turkey. Written in a style that feels like John Freely (Author) is sitting with the reader talking about his visits to many fascinating ancient sites from the western (Aegean) part of Turkey.

This is not the typical guide book to the sights, but rather a visit to the many places Freely visited himself and an explanation of what he found and saw.

Although out of date by a few years, the ruins and ancient cities described in the book are several thousand years old.

I found a copy of the Blue Guide to Turkey and it covers other areas besides the western part of Turkey. It is even further out of date but that matters little when you read about a city that was founded 2,500 to 3,000 years ago and the abandoned 1,500 years ago.

This is a good read if you are interested in knowing what it is you are seeing when you go to the ancient sites in western Turkey.

This is a personal account of travels along Turkey's Aegean shore, with a strong emphasis on history and archaology. The author has a detailed knowledge of all the periods of Turkish history and places each archaeologic site in its historical context: original inhabitants, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Byzantines, Selcuk Turks and Ottomans, into the twentieth century. He also identifies sites associated with various mythologic and biblical events and those related to Homer's Troy. It's a bit encyclopedic but never boring, and greatly enhances a trip to Turkish Anatolia.