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Published: September 25th 2011
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Today we flew to Izmir for a day trip to the cities of Ephesus, Selcuk, Sirince, and Kusadasi
Selcuk was more of a stepping stone town to get to Ephesus; however, there were a number of old ruins in the city - including the representative remaisn of one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the burial site of St. John.
Ephesus was the real treasure of the trip. This city was said to have been founded in the 10th century B.C. This archeological site can be compared to visiting Pompeii, it was once buried by layers of silt and sand, now uncovered and rediscovered it offers a glimpse into the lifestyle of ancient Roman civilizations. The entire walk of the city takes about 2 hours..a little more if you walk off the main path and go exploring. Pictures won't do this magnificent city justice. Some of the highlights included the Library of Celsus, the Marble way which was constructed in the 5th century and consisted only of marble. This Marble pathway leads to the Great Theatre. This Theater is built into the slopes of Mt. Pion and required 60 years of digging just to clear out a
space large enough to accommadate 25,000 people. This theatre was used by emperors Claudius, Nero and Trajan. This was also the site mentioned in the bible where St. Paul gave his speech to the Ephesians. (My travel recommendation would be to start at the top and work your way down.) Our other favorite spot in the city was the Terraced houses. These houses were inhabitied in the 1st and 7th centuries by the richest members of the Ephesian society. All the houses had running water, a heating system, inner courtyards, mosaic tiled floods and beautiful frescos adorning the windows. Excavation is still ongoing and members of the archeological team piece together various tiles and pieces of marble to reconstrut the originial site. Well worth the extra money to see these. It really was remarkable to see how advanced these structures were and almost impossible to wonder how they were constructed without the use of our modern day technology.
We took a quick drive down to Kusadasi from Ephesus. Kusadasi is located on the Aegean Sea. It is a popular spot for cruise ships to port and let their passengers off to visit Ephesus. Tourism has dominated this area and
unless you were looking for overpriced merchandise then the only highlight is the beautiful views of the sea as you drive around the city. From Kusadasi we drove to Sirince which is located on a hillside surrounded by apple and grape orchards. Wine is one of the main items of trade here, and I tried some apple wine that I found to be suprisingly delicious...especially considering how little I like wine usually. We had a wonderful dinner at a place called Artemis Wine House with a beautiful backdrop of orchards and the sun setting. I forgot to mention early how many cats there are in Turkey..we don't know if they have special status here or not? But no one else seems to mind them and they can come and go as they please...including right up onto our dinner table - see photo!
We eventually made our way back to Izmir and are getting ready to board our next flight back to Istanbul..another late night for us.
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