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Published: August 25th 2005
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Library of Celsus at Ephesus
This is the front part of a library in Ephesus. It was restored by austrian acheologists, so all the papyrus scrolls are in Vienna now ;-) While waiting for the Iranian visa, I visited the small town of Selcuk in west Turkey. It is better known for its nearest archeological sight, Ephesus. I visited Ephesus for one day, but I also experienced Selcuk itself to be a nice place. In Selcuk I also had the possibility to upload some pictures from all the recent places I have been. I will also try to extend the correspondıng blogs a bit.
But first about Selcuk. It is about a 10h busride away from Istanbul. It's not situated directly at the coast but some kilometers from the sea between many hills. The hills are partly covered by pine forest, especially at the coast and around Selcuk the lowlands have many peach and tomato plantations.
Ephesus is about 2.5 km away from Selcuk, and you can walk there along a pine tree shaded road through the plantations. In Ephesus there are the leftovers of a greek/roman city, the best preserved/restored buildings include a big theater, the front part of a library and some marble-paved roads with smaller buildings, many of them covered with very nice ornamentary.
During the day Ephesus gets quite crowded with busloads of tourists and its also to
Theater and Road to Ancient Harbour
Ephesus was located at the sea but the water gradually drew back leaving the once prosperous harbour dry. hot to walk around. So I walked around in the morning and the evening and spent the daytime under a big olive tree, reading a book. I also met four spanish girls (Cuadro chicas de españa duermen en la umbra de arbor) who told me about some other nice places in Turkey. Especially the time in the evening, when the sun is not so hot anymore, it was very pleasant. On the way back a man tried to sell peaches to me, freshly picked from his plantation. I didn't want to buy any, so he ripped one apart and gave one half to me, to have a taste. It was so good, that I bought enough peaches for all the following days in Selcuk, paid nearly nothing, also got the other half of the peach, got half of a honey melon, already cut and ready to eat for the way back to Selcuk, and had a chat with the man about his peaches and melons :-)
Also in Selcuk people where very kind to me. In the middle of the town there are the ruins of an aquaeduct with stork nests on it. When I started to take a picture
Ornamentary
Many buildings have nice ornamentary. of them in the evening (some people who already traveled with me know what that means, putting up a tripod and all... ;-) some man got curious, they wanted to look at the picture. I showed it to them and they invited me for turkish tea and to have a chat. Everybody has got lots of time in Turkey and most people are really keen to chat with you for a change. So I also spent some time just walking around in town in the evening.
I also went to the beach two times. Some wind and nearly no tourists there.
Yesterday I left Selcuk by night bus back to Istanbul. Before I took the bus the owner of my hostel had a big home cooked dinner for her guests: Spicy lens soup, rice with minced meat aubergine, salad, and honey melon for dessert. So I set down at the roof terrace together with a dutch couple and enjoyed it.
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