Come with us as we travel the world! See where you can go!

Posts tagged ‘ephesus’

Venice to Turkey 19

Day 19, Izmir, May 22

Breakfast today is so-so. For such a huge hotel, we’d have thought there would have been more ethnic food. Oh well, can’t ask for everything. We have a 3 hour drive this morning.

It’s a pleasant drive on a new road through farmlands and hills. We leave the limestone and travertine pools behind and travel through farmlands. A much appreciated restroom stop and we stretch our legs.

After three hours of driving, we arrive at the House of Mother Mary. This is, supposedly, the last known residence of Mary, who was put in the care of St John the Apostle, a friend of Jesus before he was crucified. Interesting that it is in Ephesus, Turkey.

I am told inside the house that I have to put my camera away so I have no photos inside. Bummer! There is a wishing wall outside and we stop for an interesting apple tea!

After, we go to a leather store and watch a ‘runway’ fashion show (a first for us). We actually buy new leather jackets! Hey, what’s a little money among friends? Then we check out interesting cloud formations and go to lunch and have a ‘just ok’ buffet.

Then we ride for a couple hours and arrive at the other side of Ephesus. You might remember we visited here 10-12 days ago on a tour off the cruise ship. So we visit again! I don’t take very many photos today as I did last time. We are curious about how this tour will compare to the last one, but it seems that tour guides are on the up and up. The information is the same. This lends credibility to the tour guides whom I commonly suspect make up interesting stories to keep the tourists coming.

Back on the bus we drive for over an hour to Izmir. A very large and modern city. We arrive at our hotel in light rain. Oz has arranged our dinner to a very specific meal. We are nervous that we don’t have any choice of food. But true to his word, the meal is delicious. It’s comprised of a Turkish soup and an entree of a sliceable meatball dish. Toss in a Turkish wine and all is good.

We become closer to some of the other guests with us and share contact info.

Venice to Turkey 12

Day 12 Kusadasi, May 15

We’re up at 6 AM today for an off ship tour of Ephesus (pronounced effasus) in Kusadasi (pronounced koosh-ahdahsa). Upon finding our tour guide, we are pleased to find it is a small private tour with only 6 people. We had expected a full tour bus of 40-50 people. Our tour guide, Begu (pronounced beg-goo) is cheerful and funny. We are in the Izmir Province of Turkey today.

Today’s tour is to Ephesus, an ancient site of biblical notoriety. Begu gives us lots of historical data of the area and is very entertaining while he does it. We chat a lot in between historical bits and I tell Begu that I make Fruit Wine. “You make Fruit Wine?” He asked excitedly! So he told me he has a friend that has Fruit Wines and at the end of the day’s tour he leads me to a vendor booth and I am given a tasting of about a dozen fruit wines and I purchase a bottle of Black Mulberry Wine! How do you like how they spell the word ‘taxi’? Phonetically correct, I would say!

Here, in Ephesus, like in Rhodes, there is a building built over an important set of ruins under current excavation at the Temple of Hadrian. Temple rooms, living accommodations and important Frescoes and tile art on floors and walls help tell the story of living thousands of years ago! Several signs in the photos to come give more accurate info on the place.

Moving on out of the Temple of Hadrian, an interesting bug points its way down the 90 irregular steps towards the Library of Celsus. The Library of Celsus is an ancient Roman building in Ephesus, Anatolia, located near the modern town of Selçuk, in the İzmir Province of western Turkey. The building was commissioned by a consul of the Roman Empire, Tiberius Julius Aquila Polemaeanus, as a funerary monument for his father Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, and completed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian.

The Library of Celsus is considered an architectural marvel, and is one of the few remaining examples of great libraries of the ancient world located in the Roman Empire. It was the third-largest library in the Greco-Roman world behind only those of Alexandria and Pergamum, and is believed to have held around 12,000 scrolls. Celsus is buried in a crypt beneath the library in a decorated marble sarcophagus. The interior measured roughly 180 square meters (2,000 square feet).

The interior of the library and its contents were destroyed in a fire that resulted either from an earthquake or a Gothic invasion in 262 CE and the façade by an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century. It lay in ruins for centuries until the façade was re-erected by archaeologists between 1970 and 1978.

The Ichthys Wheel (or Christ Wheel) (last photo in this next group) is an ancient, cryptic Christian symbol from the 2nd to 4th centuries. It was created by superimposing the five Greek letters of Ichthys—the word for fish and an acronym for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior”. When overlapped, these letters form an eight-spoked wheel.

The detail in the stone are extraordinary even in the ceilings!

Then we come to the Grand Theater of Ephesus. It is situated just a short walk up Marble Street from the Library of Celsus. Capable of holding up to 25,000 spectators, it was one of the largest in Asia Minor. Construction began in the Hellenistic period (around 250 BC) and it was vastly expanded by the Romans. Beyond theatrical performances and concerts, the space was used for gladiator games and political, social, and religious gatherings. It is the spring and Turkish Red Poppies grow everywhere!

Next we visit a rug factory where weavers spend eight to sixteen months weaving each rug. The colors and designs are fantastic and I’m sorry that photos were not one of my chosen things to do here. Pictured are silkworm cocoons being rolled onto spools. Each cocoon produces about a mile of thread each!

Back on the ship in time for trivia games in Penrose Bar. Tonight we have dinner at the Local Bar. Fish and chips and bar food fits the bill. Then to the theater to see ‘Showtime: Burn the Floor’, a dance cabaret. Now it’s off to bed.