Lamps hanging in the market in Kusadasi!
The sun was coming up as we pulled into the port city of Kusadasi, Turkey. We took an all-day tour to the ancient city of Ephesus, then on to Magnesia, Miletus and Didyma.
I love that you can see our cruise ship in the reflection......great shot, Dad! :)
This was our tour guide! He is a history professor during the year and a tour guide when school is not in session. This guy was great! He even had a handy pull-down map! :)
First stop.............the city the Apostle Paul made famous -- EPHESUS! This place was super cool and surreal to walk through. We had to drive for a bit to get there, but once we did there were already around 30 tour buses there. I have never been to a tourist site where there were so many people at one time. They said that it will get even busier during the day. By the time we left, the buses were lined up along the road waiting for tours to finish so they could bring their people in. It was insane! However, it was incredible to walk along the road that Paul walked and stand in the amphitheater he preached in. :) All the good pics were taken by my Dad. :)
Ok, some background information....At one time, Ephesus was one of the greatest sea ports of the ancient world. It was located on the Aegean Sea at the mouth of the Cayster River. It was also the meeting point of the three main roads at that time - roads to Collosae, Galatia and Smyrna. At the time of Paul, it still held one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the world - the Temple of Artemis. Although that has long since disappeared, Paul's ministry greatly threatened it at the time, and he and his buddies were persecuted because they were spreading God's truth. Their ministry even caused a riot! (Acts 19: 23-41)
This was just inside the gate.......so the very beginning. :)
Yup, another dorky pic, but you can start to see the amount of people that were coming in when we were.
This is a carving of the Greek goddess, Nike.......the origins of the "swoosh"!
The original physician sign...
This is the original main road through Ephesus and was lined with columns the whole way. Atop the columns sat statues like the one in the next picture. They were to honor the various elected officials of the city and so had their faces carved into them.
It used to take almost a year to carve these statues each time a new official was elected. However, these officials started changing and new ones re-elected after only 6 months! So to finally save the headache of creating, abandoning and recreating them, they made one body, and just changed the new heads!
The Library of Celsus is still standing.......well the walls are! This library was an enormous Roman library built around 25AD. They say it housed anywhere from 12,000 to 15,000 scrolls at the time.
Walking down the road towards the library......check out the people......plus it was a scorching +45 degrees that day!
This is inside the Library of Celsus.
Dad and I outside the library......a nice stranger snapped this pic for us! :)
The sea used to extend right up to the end of the road you can see in the next picture. At the end of this Arcadian Way, was the harbour. The sea disappeared quickly from the river filling the harbour with silt and today, the sea is over 8km away! That's how much silt came down into this area! With the harbour becoming useless, the booming port city of Ephesus began to die out and was eventually abandoned.
The water used to come right up to the end of this road....the Arcadian Way.....there was a gladiator fight scene being re-enacted when we took this pic.
It's hard to believe the valley you see in the distance was once all sea!
This square area was known as the Commercial Agora, the market area. When Paul lived here, he worked with the tent-makers Priscilla and Aquila......this is most likely where their tent-making shop was!
Turning around and looking back from the road, you can see the famous Grand Theatre! This structure could hold up to 25,000 people at the time.
Dad climbed all the way up to the top to catch the view! :)
Dad and I standing where Paul would have stood to address
the crowds......very cool moment. :)
Another shot of the "stage"
If you look really carefully, you can see Dad near the top
waving.....lol.....I love how he blends right into the steps! :)
Looking off into the distance, you can see more ruins from this once booming city! These ones have yet to be excavated and looked at.
From Ephesus, we drove to the ruins of Magnesia.
Dad and I pretending to be statues on the broken pedestals we found.......I blame the delerium from the heat that day......LOL!
Old-school toilets!
Dad hanging out on the toilets in the old bathroom.....LOL!
These guys were actually working on excavations while we were there.
From Magnesia, we drove to Miletus. This place was really cool too! They say it's an even older city than Ephesus. Lots of neat ruins left to climb on and explore! :)
The ancient theatre of Miletus
A little closer up...
A view of the "seaside" marketplace.......yet another once thriving city that
disappeared after the river silted up the harbour.
Thought the detail on the old theatre seats was cool....
Ok, last stop in Turkey was Didyma!
The Temple of Apollo
Walking into the inner court...
Inside the temple...
The head of Medusa carved on one of the large blocks of stone.
Dad doing his photo thing.....hence why I have so many fantastic pics from this trip! :)
Alright, so that sums up our adventures in Turkey......next stop, Greece! :)
