Ephesus

    We flew Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Izmir, where we were met by our tour guide, Hassan, and driven about an hour to the city of Kusadasi. This is a pretty resort city on the Aegean sea near the ancient city of Ephesus. This was our headquarters for the next several nights, and we took day trips to Ephesus, Pamakkale, and Pergamom. The hotel where we stayed is listed as a 4-star hotel (Hotel Adukale), but it had perhaps seen better days in the past. Still the view was beautiful.

Ephesus was an important city in ancient Asia Minor through many different rulers, and had three incarnations. It's importance was due to the fact that it was a harbor city and active in trade. At that time the Meander River came into the bay on the Aegean Sea at Ephesus. Eventually the bay silted up and the Meander River found a new path to the sea. In fact the ruins of Ephesus are several miles from the sea. This was the beginning of the end for the city of Ephesus. The ancient ruins of the city date mostly from the Greek and Roman times.

To tour Ephesus one starts at the top of the hill and gradually wanders down through the ruins to the bottom. The top picture shows a temple with statues and a few columns. In the background one sees the brown plain which was once the harbor.

 

Near the entrance there is a small theater for plays built by the Greeks. The middle picture shows a side view of the entrances to the theater. The lower picture shows the theater itself which is in pretty decent shape. That is Phil standing there with his tourist "Turkiye" baseball hat, purchased specifically to keep the sun off the top of his head. It was a beautiful, sunny, but quite hot day.

 

Pat and Phil amidst the classical ruins. (The ruins are the things around us - not us.)
This is a beautiful mosaic which remains in quite good shape after 2000 years. This was the market area of Ephesus.

 

 

 

 

Ephesus had rather modern plumbing, even 2000 years ago. This was a communal bathroom - I think it was a 24 holer. I believe that it served not only its intended purpose, but also provided a meeting place to discuss business and politics. That is Phil with our guide, Rashid, taking advantage of the facilities.
The top picture is of the library, famous in the ancient world. The library collection at the time was the best  in the world. In the lower right hand corner you can see the entrance to a tunnel which led to a "house of ill repute" on the other side of the road. The ancient romans could tell their wives that they would be studying in the library, and then take a quick right turn.

 

 

 

This road was the entryway from the harbor to Ephesus. It was once a magnificent road with numerous columns lining the avenue.

 

 

 

Now we are next to the entrance avenue looking back on the magnificent, large theater of Ephesus. The theater is in remarkably good shape, and is still used for the occasional performance - I think mostly musical concerts.