Day 26 - Tuesday May 9 - Kusadasi Turkey
It's Day 26 and I keep getting amazed by the world we live in and the history that has come before us. Having never been to Europe (or out of the US and Canada) before, I have been astounded by all that I have seen. It's true that the last 25 days have run together. I can recall what I have seen but sometimes I'm not sure what country I've been in when I saw those sights. I've been pretty religious in keeping up my blog and I'm hoping that my words and corresponding pictures will help bring back these memories and that they don't all float together in one big mush in my brain.
Before this trip I had never heard of Ephasus. I guess the teachers in school may have taught us. I took four years of Latin in high school and one semester of Classical Greek. But the brain has forgotten all that I may have learned regarding Ephasus.
When Wayne and I were discussing the days the the excursion, he just said, "You have to go to Ephasus." Well, yes I did and I did (have to). Our tour today, was the included tour, "Ancient Ephesus". We took a bus from the port and approximately 20 minutes later we were in Ephasus.
Ephasus was the capital of Romans in Asia Minor 2000 years ago. After the excavations it became a huge open air museum where the most important Roman works and art can be seen. There are two gates in Ephesus; upper gate and lower gate. There is a gentle slope, so Ephesus tours start at the top gate and finish at the lower gate. That sounds pretty good since it's a fairly gentle downhill slope but it's all marble. So, slippy is a good word to use. My walking stick (actually Wayne's) slid on the marble as we descended down the street. All in all, with some careful, where do I put my next foot, the 1 1/2 tour we had was absolutely amazing. Ephasus was a city of 500,000 people at it's height; half of which were slaves. The enormity of this city is overwhelming. With only 20% of the city excavated, we were told to come back in 500 years and perhaps we would see all of the excavation finished.
Mark Anthony and Cleopatra walked these streets! And I walked them too.
We started at the Odeon and was built by the Romans as a concert hall. It's about 2,000 years old and sat 1,400 people. It was destroyed in the 7th century by an earthquake.
The Prytaneon where the holy fire was. It was dedicated to the Goddess of Fire, Hesti.
The next stop was The Fountain of Pollio one of many monumental fountains dedicated to the city by the rich Romans and was dedicated to Roman Emperor Domitian.
Next, the Temple of Domitian. The detail that was able to be saved when the city of Ephasus was dug up in the 1800's is amazing. It is the biggest Temple that was built in the city center. It was built for the Roman Emperor Domitian on the 3 floor podium.
Hercules Gate is located at the beginning of Curetes street. Heracles' relics are visible on the two columns.
These are the actual marble walkway - the holes were to help the chariots (traction). Let's say there wasn't any traction available for me today.
Curetes street is where you get your first glimpse of The Library. It is the main street connecting upper Ephesus to the lower Ephesus
Trojan's Fountain, the only monumental fountain built for a Roman emperor in the beginning of the 2nd century. It is dedicated to Roman emperor Trajan and Goddess Artemis.
Hadrian's Temple, one of the Roman Emperor Temples built in the 2nd century AD and is one of the more recent restorations. It was converted to a Christian church in the 4th Century AD.
The Mosaic - Paved Sidewalk from the 5th & 6th centuries. These were mosaics in front of the wealthiest peoples' houses.
It's time for the pictures of the bathrooms or "Latrina". These were the only public toilets in Ephasus and were used only by men. Women used toilets in their own homes. So, there's 24 communal "holes". It's all marble, so you may have sent your slave down 30 minutes earlier than you needed it to warm up the marble in the winter months. Water ran through to 'flush' and water (clean - kind of) ran down in a ditch in front of the rows of toilets. Well, it was clean for the first person at the beginning of the row. There was no such thing as toilet paper. They used a communal stick. I'll leave it there.
Near the Library was the Brothel. I guess the oldest profession is really the oldest profession. Not much of this remains but our guide told us that nearby was the Market "Agroa" or shopping street. Men didn't want to shop. They told their wives they were going to the Library. There was a tunnel near the Gates of Mazeus and built by slaves over 2,000 years ago. It ran from the Library to the Brothel which served well for the men that didn't want to go shopping.
The Brothel (or what's left of it)
The Library of Celsus is the most amazing building to be excavated from an earthquake built by slaves over 2,000 years ago. It is the 3rd largest library in ancient times. There were supposedly over 12,000 scrolls
From there we went through the Gates of Mazeus to the commercial Agora or the retail district. Not much is restored there but you can tell there was a town square. We were told it was 11,000 sq. meters.
Toward the end of our tour, we walked through the commercial Agora to The Great Theatre. It is the biggest ancient theater in Turkey with a capacity of 24.000 seats. It was built 4th Century BC. It took 60 years to build this huge Theater of Ephesus. It was a Greek Theater which had been converted into a Roman Theatre.
The amazing 24,000 person theatre
What I believe is their 'boneyard' of pieces of buildings they are not certain of where they belong.
We ended the tour on "Harbor Street" which starts at the theatre and ends at the harbor. it is 530 meters long. There is no harbor anywhere nearby. The town of Ephasus was moved (literally) by an earthquake over 6 miles from it's original site.
There is a lot of history and perhaps some science that the Virgin Mary lived and died not 7 km away from Ephasus. Ephasus was the only city of those times, we were told, that were safe for Christians.
Back on the bus and back to Kusadasi where we were ushered into a wholesale carpet "store" to view how Turkish rugs were made. There was no obligation to buy and although I did fall in love with a runner, there was no way I was paying the price. We were told to negotiate. But, when I was asked what my budget was, there was never going to be a meeting of minds. This is GOOD! I saved my money and left with some beautiful pictures of some gorgeous wool and silk handmade rugs. The silk rugs; we were given a demonstration, are double knotted with 625 knots per square inch. The feel of the silk rugs was phenominal. Wayne didn't even come in. Lois bought a rug many years ago which is still in his shed. From what I heard today, I'm thinking that rug has increased in value four times over. I'm going to make him get it out of the shed when we get home. I have to see Lois' rug.
At the rug wholesaler we were given a pastry (not so good) and their version of Ouzo - called Raki; licorice flavored and I didn't think it was too strong. I didn't buy anything because I got drunk :)
the one I would have bought if i were crazy and had more Raki.
this rug was $45,000 (yes dollars)
I loved this sign - not sure what exactly they're saying but they are fakes
A good picture of the Turkish flag\
I received the 'pitch'; left the store and wandered the bazaar while every salesman tried to get me to come into their store to buy something; anything; silk scarves; pottery; jewelry... I managed to make it back to the ship unscathed and without opening my wallet. But tomorrow, in Troy and Thursday in Istanbul I may not have the willpower. My tour on Friday includes another "rug demonstration" in Instanbul.
Comments
Post a Comment