© Lucie Debelkova / www.luciedebelkova.com posted a photo:
If I were to name three things that surprised or impressed me the most during my 3 weeks trip through Turkey 8 years ago, Chimaera would be one of them, together with Cappadocia & the ancient city of Termessos in the mountains of Gulluk Dagi National Park. Reason for picking Chimaera is that we all learn about the mythical Chimaera from the Greek legends or some people learn about it from movie Mission Impossible II, however no one tells you that there is an actual place which this legend is based on. This time I visited the place during middle of a day and the light was too harsh, therefore I decided to capture detail of this unusual fire that is burning on the hill for thousands of years.
Ancient Chimaera is a geographical feature near Olympos valley and national park in Antalya Province in southwestern Turkey, at a distance of about forty kilometers to the southwest from the city of Antalya, between the district center of Kemer and the township of Beldibi, near present Tekirova. It is characterized by a permanent fire caused by methane emissions and the area is located on a track popular with hikers and trekkers on the Lycian Way.
Called in Turkish Yanartaş (flaming rock), the spot consists of some two dozen vents in the ground, grouped in two patches on the hillside above the Temple of Hephaistos about 3 km north of the village of Çıralı, near ancient Olympos, in Lycia. The vents emit methane thought to be of metamorphic origin, which can spontaneously ignite. In ancient times sailors could navigate by the flames, but today they are more often used to brew tea, the flames being of little use for navigation now.
The mythological reason for the fires is far more interesting than the scientific one. The most interesting thing about these flames is that they are fueled from material that is NOT organic. These are the only flames of this kind. Legend is as follows : Belleraphon, on his winged horse Pegasus, has killed the fire-spewing dragon at this place. According to the myth the flames coming out of the stone are the flames that the dragon is spewing out of his mouth. The ruins of the temple, build in this area, which was considered as sacred by the Byzantine smith's, are still remaining next to YanartaÅŸ. According to some historians the Olympic fire was taken from this place first time.
Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Lens’s focal length: 70.00 - 200.00 mm, Photo Focal length: 200.00 mm, Aperture: 4.0, Exposure time: 1/100 s, ISO: 100
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