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Published: September 11th 2012
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According to Wikipedia...
Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Kusadasi, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era. In the Roman period, Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also made it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world. The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), and is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Emperor Constantine I rebuilt much of the city and erected new public baths. Following the Edit of Thessaloica from emperor Theodosius I, the temple was destroyed in 401 AD by a mob led by St. John Chrysostom. The town was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614 AD. The city's importance as a commercial center declined as the harbor was slowly silted up by the Casyster River. Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of Revelations. The Gospel of John may have been written here. It is also the site of a large gladiators' graveyard.
According to me...
This place is so cool. Ephesus was the one place that Laurie wanted to book a tour of before we even set out on the trip. She suggested that we get the tickets in advance to make sure we had a proper tour of the site. I am so glad she suggested it beacuse I had no idea what this was all about.
We woke up in Turkey, grabbed some breakfast and got off the ship to meet our tour. We boarded the coach and took a 20 minute ride out of Kusadasi.
When we arrived at Ephesus, the group was to meet "by the ticket booth" after a washroom break. The "meeting by the ticket booth" instructions seemed to confuse some of the folks on our bus. Seriously, how hard can it be to meet "by the ticket booth"? As you can imagine, I didn't have high hopes for the group initially, but things got better over the next 3 hours.
To imagine that this place was here before Jesus Christ. The ruins are incredible and I have to acknowledge the archeologists who had the patience and persistence
to unearth the city.
We started at the top of the hill and walked the main street towards the library. It was a busy place with many tour groups passing one another. I found the Terrace Houses to be especially interesting.
The Terrace Houses were homes that were "terraced" into the hills around Ephesus. Today, they have covered them with a extensice tenting system. They take you in and lead you through a maze of walkways and steps that eventually lead you to high above the rooms of the ancient houses. You walk by these guys that are sorting, cleaning, and trying to put the pieces back together. Our tour guide said, "It is like putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together without knowing what the picture looks like." Incredible.
The homes were quite advanced. They had indoor plumbing, mosaics on the floors, frescos on the walls, and a ton of marble thoughout. These folks were livin' large!
After the Terrace House, we were led to the "Town Square" in front of the library. It is an impressive piece of architecture and it resembled a very elaborate movie set. The guide told us that across
from the library was a building that had no doors or windows. It was the town brothel. Apparently, men would tell their wives that they were going to the library and then make their way through a tunnel below the square and end up in the brothel... I guess it really is the oldest profession.
From the library, we made our way through the arches and out to the amphitheatre. What an amzing piece of work. Elton John, Diana Ross, Julio Iglesias, and Sting have performed there. In fact, Sting was the last person to perform. After his concert, they noticed new cracks in the stonework, so they do not allow anyone to perform there anymore in order to preserve it.
Once in the amphitheatre, we headed to the top to get a good photograph of the stage area. While we were climbing, we heard someone singing. It was another tourist who was standing on the stage singing acapella and without a microphone. She was pretty good and the acoustics were incredible. We could hear her perfectly from where we were standing.
Once we finished touring the amphitheatre, like every other tour, they dumped us out in
the market area. We were warned that the vendors could be quite aggressive, but to be honest, they were pretty good. We bought a couple of t-shirts. There were a lot of things that we weren't interested in... chuka pipes, silver tea sets, belly dancing outfits, chess sets, and all sorts of carvings.
FINAL NOTE: We were told that the excavation of Ephesus is approximately 2/3 complete. They figure they should have it all done in another 100 years. I want to go back then and see it in all its glory.
From there we boarded the bus and headed back to Kusadasi and a lesson in Turkish rugs.
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Deb Brush
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Thank You, Bob...
Every once in awhile I take the time to visit your site and read about where you are. I always enjoy travelling vicariously with you to these incredible places. Loaded down with childrearing I only get to travel through amazing friends like you. What a story you will have in your back pocket after all this.