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Published: December 20th 2008
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Arriving at Kusadasai
A large statue of Atatürk overlooks the bay I had pre-arranged a tour with EKOL tours of Turkey to take us to the archaeological site of Ephesus. While chatting with people online I met up with someone who wanted to join us to help keep costs down.
We met Lianda, Joe, Alice and Alice’s husband at Cova Café and we headed off the ship as soon as the gangway opened, even before it was announced that we could leave the ship. We met our guide Yelda and our driver and headed to Ephesus. It was great being part of such a small tour group. Yelda was a licensed guide from Turkey, having studied Turkish history to get this job. She is from a city to the south of where we were, Izmir. She was very knowledgeable and personable and told us a lot about Epehsus and the area even before we got there. None of us knew much about the area or what we were going to see, so having a good guide was necessary. It took about 15 minutes to get from the port to the site. Once inside Yelda pointed out all sorts of interesting things that we would have missed had we gone on our
own.
Ephesus is a very ancient city, but what we toured were ruins from around 500BC. A large part of the excavation took place around in the late 1800s by the British and the restoration is not exact in those areas. For example, some of the stones in the road are put in the wrong way. There are grooves in the marble stones that make up the road that are supposed to be used for traction when slippery, but they are placed the long way in some places and across the road in other places. What we saw was about 35% original and the remainder restoration to represent how they believed things were. Also, a lot of the original stuff was taken by British archaeologists to the put in the British museum. One of the best restorations is that of the facade of the Library of Celsus. It looks very large and about 3 stories tall, but according to Yelda, it was determined to be just 2 stories tall on the inside. There was a carving of Athena Nike, in her famous “swish” shaped form. There is an ancient amphitheater that is still used today for plays and concerts.
We also saw remains of other buildings and temples, the facade to the Temple of Hadrian with its interesting carvings which included a rare depiction of Gods and local humans together and a garland of flowers and what looked like swastikas, which were representation of water and rivers crossing. There was also a well preserved bathhouse with its many seated toilet facility. It is a city that is mentioned in the Bible and it is thought that St. Paul, St. John and Mary, mother of Jesus all lived there at one time. During the time when people were quietly converting to Christianity, they used symbols carved into the marble sidewalks and roads to indicate Christians lived or worked at that location. It looks like a pizza with 6 pieces of pie, but it represents the Greek letters that represented the word Jesus superimposed on top of each other.
But the most impressive site there was the Terrace Houses. Found in the 1960s and excavated with the help of Austria since the 1990s, it is an amazing set of very well preserved connected rooms and homes that were opened for viewing for the first time just last year. It is
covered with a steel roof and the stairs and platforms are made of Plexiglases so you can see everything. There is a large room where they are still doing work fitting pieces of frescoes and marble walls and counters. It is believed the main house belonged to a local medical doctor based and some of the attached homes belonged to members of his family. The mosaic floors, tiled and painted walls were absolutely amazing. The outermost walls were built with double walls with clay pipes running through them with hot or cold water and keep the house cool or warm. Since the excavations were so new, it was done very patiently and with much detail so over 90% of what we saw was original rather than restorations.
Walking through the area, you could look at the hills around you and see from the shapes of the slopes and hillocks that there is a lot more to be excavated, but no one has the money to do it. Yelna said that they guessed that only 15% of the site has been excavated. Imagine what they will find if they do find sponsors to help excavate!
When we left Ephesus
we went and stopped at a Turkish ceramics factory. While in Istanbul I had a tough time deciding what to purchase because there were so many beautiful tiles, bowls, ornaments, plates etc made in this Turkish pottery and hand painted. It was very interesting to see the art of making the pieces and painting them and then learning about the different painting styles and how they changed over time. We learned that if properly made, you can strike the ceramic piece and it will ring like a bell. If there is a flaw, it will have a hollow unpleasant sound. We watched some of the artisans painting some plates. I cannot imagine sitting there painting like that all day, the detail is so fine. But the end results are beautiful. After way too much deliberation I purchased a vase and two trivets there. JoAnne bought candle sticks and two trivets. Rick just rolled his eyes at us for how long it took for us to pick them out. (They didn’t sell soccer jerseys there for him to buy.)
Our last stop was the Temple of Artimus, and important Goddess of this area. She is considered a “mother” symbol and
is represented as a woman with many breasts. It was hard to imagine the temple as it must have looked in its time. What we saw was a field of pieces of marble columns, and one column made up of stacked pieces. Apparently the British took away the good stuff again. But it was a pretty area and the Church of St. John, a fort and a mosque all stood on hills overlooking the valley where this temple was.
After we got back to town, we stopped at a restaurant and had doner kebab for lunch, served with really delicious fresh pita bread. Then we went to the local bazaar to do some shopping. I found a shop that took my last 4.95 Turkish Lira for a box of Apple tea, so I was psyched! Everyone wanted 10 to 15 Lira for a box. I also found a silver bracelet for Stephen’s girlfriend, Alyssa, made in an interesting Byzantine weave. JoAnne found that the ship’s shopping guide had some freebies in it, so we hiked around and found the stores giving the stuff away. They were upset we weren’t buying anything, but there was no requirement to do so.
Kusadasai Bazaar
They have a good sense of humor in Kusadasai We go a free Turkish hand towel, a cheap wallet and a nice evil eye charm set in a 14K gold setting.
We were full after our late lunch, so we skipped dinner this night. Rick took a nap and JoAnne and I went to Cova Café for an adult coffee drink while I took time to catch up writing in my journal. We woke Rick up later and went to the buffet for a light sushi dinner.
At that time they made an announcement about a general strike that was going to take place the next day in Athens. The buses, trains, taxis, banks, airlines, ferries, schools and government offices were all going to be closed. Lawyers were not going to work and the power company may strike also. And it was possible, since the sights such as the Acropolis were run by the government, they might be closed also. I had emailed the guy who I had planned to use for a half day tour to see if necessary, would he be available for the whole day if we wanted it, or if he was supporting the strike. We checked into ship excursions just in case,
An olive tree
They are just about ripe but they canceled many of the city tours just in case. Yikes, after a few stress free days that went well, here we go again!
It was windy out tonight and the ship was noticeably rocking. Since our cabin was in the very front of the ship, every time we hit a wave we heard and felt the slam. I was glad for the light dinner and no drinking tonight!
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