Turkey 2016–Part Two–It’s a Small World— Miniaturk Style

There is a one to 25 scale replica park in Istanbul called the Miniaturk Park, presumably for families and especially those who can’t afford to travel and see the sites in Turkey. It’s a fun place, and in fact it’s the only place you are going to find several sites of Biblical import— for example the temple of Artemis (of which only one column still remains in Ephesus), or the tomb of Mausolus (from which we get the word mausoleum). The park has been open for some years now, but I had never heard of it until recently, hence my visit to the Turkish version of ‘it’s a small world after all’. Let’s start with the Temple of Artemis—

Yep that’s Artemsis herself in there in all her glory.

Next stop, the monumental tomb of King Mausolus who was buried at Halicarnassus. This tomb was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, but alas it is no more— This shot gives you an idea about the scale of the tomb compared to the Temple of Artemsis…

Then I turned to the famous Temple of Zeus at the acropolis at Pergamon, which was famously carted off log, stock, and barrel by German antiquities thieves err…archaeologists and given a special museum in Berlin (n.b. it’s still there today).

There is also the famous replica of the library of Celsus in ancient Ephesus…

There is also the replica of the great Roman theater in Aspendos…
As well as the gods and kings statues on Mt. Nimrud…

How about the fairy castles and cave churches of Capadoccia, comnplete with replica hot air balloons?

What about an ancient sailing vessel? Ask and ye shall receive…
Or a Roman aqueduct like you see in Istanbul?

Or the famous Sumela cliff side monastery near Trabzon? Or the Galata tower in Istanbul? There is much more I could show you, but you get the picture. The neat thing is seeing replicas of ancient buildings now long gone, or at least in ruins.