Amasya in 1970 (117)

One particularly memorable trip when I was stationed in Turkey, was to the inland city of Amasya. Traveling with the same group that usually traveled together, we took the military shuttle to Samsun and then a train (powered by a coal-burning steam engine) to Amasya. Amasya is deep in the mountains, with a historic set of tombs dug into the mountainside overhead. The city itself was relatively small – most of it can be seen in the picture from the tombs. We spent two nights there in a local hotel overlooking the river, and simply explored the tombs and walked around town. The city was not a place that received many tourists, so we had to get by on our limited Turkish, combined with our limited German or French (more locals spoke some of either German or French, than English). This was also the first place that I had to deal with what was then the Turkish version of a toilet – simply a hole in the floor, two foot pads, and a spigot for cleaning. The trip to Amasya was in the winter – they heated with a fairly dirty coal in those days, and it was overcast/drizzly, so everything looks gray in the pictures.

The cave tombs are referred to as the ’Kings Tombs’ and were dug for the Pontus kings between 400 and 200 BC.

Pictures in this set (Military Years) are from when I was in the military, from 1967-1970. All photos were originally slides, a friend spent very many hours restoring those slides to being viewable. Best viewed as part of the Military Years set.