Thursday--January 27--Ephesus

Thursday--January 27--Ephesus

All my bags are packed I’m ready to go.  When I come downstairs with my luggage and give the key to the receptionist she seems surprised that I am checking out.  I did have a reservation for two more nights, but I thought Ayca would have called and told them I was leaving.  Who knows.

“You are leaving?, she asks.

“Yes, plans have changed,” I say.

A different driver picks me up this morning.

Today I meet three other people all from Bombay, India.  There is a married couple and another woman who is the sister of the wife.  They are very nice, educated and have money.  The single woman is 30, I would have never guessed that and still lives at home.  The married couple have two girls aged 4 and 6.  They have come to Turkey for a one week holiday.  They spent the night in Izmir are taking this tour of Ephesus today spending another night in Izmir then flying to Istanbul for 4 nights.  

Ali and the "captain"

Our tour guide for today is Ali and we have the same driver I had yesterday, “the captain”.  I’m sorry not to have Seda as I thought she was very good. 


But Seda told me that the tour company has their own guides and when they are available they are used.  O.k.

We start our tour at the Virgin Mary’s house which is up on the hill above Ephesus.  

Virgin Mary on the road to her house

Supposedly she came here from Jerusalem and died in this house.  Ali said that some believe this is a myth but three Pope’s have come here and decided that yes it is true the Virgin Mary died here.  On August 15, which is the day she died, 1,000’s of people come here and there are many masses.

Virgin Mary's House

Legend has it that the Virgin Mary lived her last days on earth in a small stone cottage on Mount Koressos (Bülbüldağı, "Nightingale Mountain" in Turkish) to the south of Ephesus (map). Meryemana ("Mother Mary"), as the place is called, is located in a municipal park on the mountaintop 9 km (5.6 miles) from Selçuk, 5.5 km from the Upper Gate entrance to the Ephesus archeological site.

The modern history of the Virgin Mary's House is unusual. It was "discovered" in 1812 by a German nun, Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, who never traveled away from her home.

Sister Emmerich, an invalid confined to bed, awoke in a trance with the stigmata and visions that included the Virgin Mary and Apostle John traveling from Jerusalem to Ephesus. She described Mary's house in detail, which was recorded at her bedside by a writer named Brentano.

Emmerich described a rectangular stone house, which John had built for Mary. It had a fireplace and an apse and a round back wall. The room next to the apse was Mary's bedroom, which had a spring running into it.

The German nun went on to say that the Virgin Mary died at the age of 64 and was buried in a cave near her house. When her coffin was opened soon after, however, the coffin and burial shroud were empty. The house was then turned into a chapel.

When we arrived there weren’t many tourists.  We walked into the house where there are many signs asking you to take two candles.  There isn’t much inside the stone house besides the many boxes of candles.  I didn’t see where the candles were used until we left the house where I saw the boxes filled with sand.  

This is where you are suppose to light the candles and leave them.  As we continued our walk away from the house there is a wall with prayer rags and three fountains of holy water.  

wishing wells

prayer wall

Of course I take a few sips of the holy water.  I can use all the help I can get.  The married woman on my tour gave me a handwipe to wrap around the prayer wall.  It reminded me of the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem where people leave prayers only that’s inside the cracks and this is outside.

We continue on our way and stop at the statue of Mary that is on the road.  The view from here is fabulous and it’s a glorious day.  You can see the entire city of Ephesus from up here.

view from the hill

The other people

Ephesus was incredible.  Bigger than I anticipated.  During our tour Ali tells us that only 10% of the city has been unearthed.  Remember they think nearly 300,000 people lived here at one time.

Ephesus which was established as a port, used to be the most important commercial centre. It played a great role in the ancient times with its strategic location. Ephesus is located on a very fertile valley.

Ephesus, once, the trade centre of the ancient world, a religious centre of the early Christianity and today, Ephesus is an important tourism centre in Turkey.

The ancient city of Ephesus (Turkish: Efes), located near the Aegean Sea in modern day Turkey, was one of the great cities of the Greeks in Asia Minor and home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. (Artemis was the Greek goddess, the virginal huntress and twin of Apollo, who replaced the Titan Selene as Goddess of the Moon.  At Ephesus a goddess whom the Greeks associated with Artemis was passionately venerated in an archaic icon. The original was carved of wood, with many breast-like protuberances apparently emphasizing fertility over the virginity traditionally associated with the Greek Artemis. Like Near Eastern and Egyptian deities (and unlike Greek ones), her body and legs are enclosed within a tapering pillar-like term, from which her feet protrude)  

There is so much to see here.  This is the busiest sight I have been to including the big ones in Istanbul.  I don’t know why I am feeling like there are so many tourists.  I can’t imagine coming here in the summer.

NIKE

Ali walks us around and explains area after area.  This was the main street, here were the stores, this was the temple.  There is a tomb of “Nike”.  Unfortunately, so many pieces have been taken by earlier excavations, and they are in museums around the world.  I asked when excavation started and Ali told me in the late 1800’s.  When Turkey became a republic in 1920’s the president said that no more artifacts could leave the country.  But by then it was already too late.  There are lots of stands but the statues are long gone.

There is an area we couldn’t go into which is the “houses” of the wealthy people built into the hillside.  It is all covered up and won’t be available for viewing until the summer.  Apparently there are wonderful mosaics inside.  Too bad.

Medea

One of the most impressive parts of Ephesus is the Celsius library.  Celsius built it for his father and used amazing ingenuity to keep the books preserved from the humidity.  Unfortunately the books were destroyed by the Goths.

The library of Celsus is an ancient building in Ephesus, Anatolia, now part of Turkey. It was built in honor of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus (completed in 135 AD) by Celsus’ son, Gaius Julius Aquila (consul, 110 AD). Celsus had been consul in 92 AD, governor of Asia in 115 AD, and a wealthy and popular local citizen.

The library was built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for Celsus. It was unusual to be buried within a library or even within city limits, so this was a special honor for Celsus.  


I also found a menorah etched into the step of the library.

On the other side of the library was what Ali called the “Agoura” which was supposedly the “shopping center”.  Every area in Ephesus is large.  The last place we went to was the “theater”.  

Ali told us that Elton John and Sting gave concerts here but the government will no longer allow people to use the theater.  There was damage done from those concerts so it is only allowed to be used once or twice a year and only with acoustic instruments.  This was by far the biggest “roman” or “greek” theater I’ve seen at all the ancient sights I have visited in this part of the world.  What I did learn was the Greek’s used the theater more for theatrical entertainment but the Roman’s used it more for “gladiator” performance and killing of slaves.  

Outside of the theater is an area that looks like a cemetery where they display the empty boxes above the ground.

After being here for nearly 2.5 hours it’s time to go to lunch.  We are all hungry.  Again we go to one of those “tourist” buffet’s but this is the best one so far.  The food isn’t great but it’s edible.

Genuine FAKE watches

After lunch we thought we were going to go visit the castle in Selcuk however we are taken to a textile school where students learn to make rugs.  

cocoons

The first thing we see when we walk in is a vat of silkworms.  We are shown the cocoon of the silkworm and how all the different kinds of rugs are made.  There are not only silk, but wool and cotton used for making rugs.  We are given demonstrations on how each one is made.  The man explains the amount of time each different material takes to make a rug.  

All rugs are made by hand and some take up to a year to finish.  No two rugs are the same and that is why they do not have a web site or a catalog.  I have to say if there was a time I wanted to buy something this was it.  

each rug is hand knotted

After the school the India people want to stop at a Diesel outlet they saw on the way so we stop there.  Then we finally are on our way to the castle, so we think.  We pull into what looks like an empty lot across the field from the castle.  It is at this time that Ali tells us no one can enter the castle.  That’s a bummer

That’s the end of this day.  The people from India are being driven back to Izmir and I am being taken back to Kusadasi.  

The driver takes me to the travel office again so I can confirm my arrangements for Bodrum and pay Ayca.  She told me that when the driver picks me up in the morning he will have my vouchers for the hotels and the ferry tickets.  I’m not feeling 100% with this deal but I pay her anyway.

The driver takes me back to the new hotel.  This hotel is much better and of course I’m wondering why I didn’t change the first night.  

view from my room

I went downstairs to the restaurant and it looked o.k. so I sat down and ordered a pizza and a beer.  Not long after I was eating I noticed a family sitting at the next table.  Somehow we started to talk and it turns our the husband and wife are originally from Holland and the daughter, who is 12 but looks 16, was born in Turkey.  They have lived in Kusadasi for 14 years but are wanting to move.  They are thinking of Costa Rica.  They start talking to me about the world having a “DNA” shift and about some Japanese guy Emo.  O.k. so they really think outside the box.  I ask how, with this philosophy, have they been able to live in Turkey especially a small town like Kusadasi.  Oh we’ve done it, they tell me.   They are an interesting couple.  They tell me about a t-shirt company they are working on and the label will say “made globally”.  Sounds good.  I tell them about Earth Day and suggest they may want to investigate festivals like that to start selling their t-shirts. 

This is what this journey is about.  Meeting people from all over and hearing what they have to say.