Just outside of Selcuk there sits high on a mountain ridge, the fortress of Keçi Kales, or Goat Castle. The story goes that the attacking army were brutally outnumbered and waited until nightfall to attack. They took thousands of goats, mounted candles to their heads and led them up the mountain. The castle guards, seeing the "massive army" storming up the mountain, decided to surrender without bloodshed to the massive offensive of goats.
. ...and so I was told...and now tell you!
We were invited to join the school's trekking club for our own "storming" of the castle. We approached on an overcast afternoon with a small group of teenagers. We did not bring candles but we did follow some goats for a bit.
We followed the path and our instincts towards the top until we reached an old road or trail that winds it way up the mountain. Once we had the castle in our sights we left the trail behind and scrambled the rocks directly to the summit.
Resting in the old castle, the kids unloaded a plethora of picnic supplies. They had planned a barbeque over an open fire. So we collected the little wood available for a fire and cooked sucuk sausages over the open flame. We spent the afternoon in the shadows of an ancient site sharing food and talking of old times.
We were there a few years back and I'm just now getting around to scrapbooking our pictures. I took a picture of the castle from our bus and jotted "google goats, turkey, castle" for the story on this in my journal. I'm up early this morning, just put the picture in my album and googled. Found this posting with the wonderful story and just rewrote it for my album. THANKS!!!! Patty in Tennessee
ReplyDeleteThree american military guys trekked up the hill to the castle in 1979. We were based in Izmir. Quite a view. Thanks for posting the pics.
ReplyDelete