The Roman gladiatorial stadium at Aphrodesias in Turkey

The gladiator stadium at Aphrodesia in Turkey has to be probably my favorite ruin ever (and we've seen them on several continents).  It was massive and very well-preserved.  My sons had a gas leaping around, darting out of the warrior tunnelts.  You could somehow sense the thousands who battled and died there--like the scene in the movie Patton where Gen Patton says to Gen. Omar Bradley, "I was here Brad.  I was here with the Carthaginians two thousand years ago.".  While we were there, we met the guy who was revisiting the place for lonely planet.  He was the only person we saw at these magnificent ruins. We saw a handful of people at the great museum there, but out among the temples and stadiums and theatres, we saw no one.

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