Trip to Ephesus

So, yesterday I went to Efes (Ephesus) on a day trip.  It was a bit of a chaotic journey, and what with the travel time and all the stops at cafes, tea shops, restaurants and lokum shops I was in Efes for 2.5 hours but away from my hotel for 13 hours!  Of course, these stops at tour company-related places are the way they make money off the excursion - my trip cost barely more than the entrance fee, so it doesn't seem right to complain!  And I do like lokum (Turkish Delight) so that stop was OK....

But there was lots of milling around, wondering what to do and mass confusion.  In the end we all made it there and (hopefully) we all made it back, so I guess it worked out.  But a little organization would have made a big difference!

Anyway, Efes is a really ancient city.  I learned that they have found pottery and weapon remains that date back to 4,000 B.C.  The Greeks made it a major city, and under the Romans it was the capital of their province of Asia (modern western Turkey) and experienced something of a Golden Age.  Then, unfortunately for the people then but fortunately for us, the harbor silted up.  This caused the city to be abandoned.  If it weren't for that the ancient remains would be completely covered with a modern city.  

Efes was the site of one of the other Seven Wonders of the ancient world - the Temple of Artemis.  I always thought it was inside the city and imagined it looking out over the harbor.  In fact it was in a valley on the other side of the mountain from Ephesus - I think that basically nothing remains now.  But it made the city even more prosperous that just the trade since pilgrims came from all over the ancient world to see it.

Efes was also one of the major Christian centers of the Roman world - but we didn't see any remains of churches.  There is a massive walled church (Basilica of St John) outside the city that is named after John the Apostle of Christ.  It was very impressive and completely unexpected.  Unfortunately we didn't get close enough for any good pictures.  

And the house of the Virgin Mary is there, too.  Apparently (according to legend) John left Jerusalem after the cruxifiction.  He went to Ephesus and took Mary, the mother of Jesus with him.  I didn't see it myself, but a large group of Italians who were with our tour left lunch early to visit it.  (In fact, they had been promised this visit by their tour company but it wasn't on the Agenda with the company that actually ran the Tour.  Small miscommunication there!  So there was a small revolt on the bus on the way to Efes with all sorts of Italian drama - you can imagine!  In the end the had something arranged for a small additional fee - but everyone ended happy, I think.)

Anyway, on to Ephesus.

Below is a map of the city.  If you were to draw a diagonal line from the upper left to the lower right corners the period under the line is the portion of the city that is excavated (more or less excavated, that is.)  In other words, not much!

The pictures below are from the long street running from the harbor (long gone) to the Theater.  The Theater is really impressive - it can hold 25,000 people!  And this would have been one of the first things visitors and merchants arriving by sea would have seen.  It must have been a really impressive sight!

Here's a photo from the steps of the Theater looking back down street leading to the harbor.  It would have been lined with shops and offices.  The section to the left in the photo was the Commercial Agora so a definitely bustling place.  Where there are now tress and green grass was the harbor and the Aegean Sea.  Amazing to think that the sea is 6 miles away now.  

This street leads into the unexcavated part of Efes.  On the map above you can see the Stadium in the upper center.  The guide said that really only 25% of the ancient city has been excavated.  There are quite a few unfortunate reconstructions (meaning, lots of concrete used to link bits of columns together) that date from a long time ago when that was the norm (the Parthenon in Athens has a lot of the same kind of work but they're gradually undoing it), but there are some other really interesting remains that are pretty cool.

This is the Library.  Obviously the facade was restored, but it was done very well.  Apparently it was originally a tomb but was completely too ostentatious.  So it was turned into the city's library.  The guide told us that this library was the Roman world's third largest - Alexandria's was the largest and then Pergamon's was the second largest.  Still, being third largest library in the Roman world is pretty impressive.  I wonder why Rome didn't have a large library...?

Anyway, I also think this looks very much like some of the buildings in Petra that I saw last year.  I guess it makes sense - the Greek culture (including architecture) was dominant in the entire area so I guess major buildings would have some similar characteristics.

Here is a picture of the main gate from the square in front of the library into the Commercial Agora.  So the Theater is down a marble-paved street to the left of the edge of the picture.

Here the Library is behind me and I'm looking up the major road leading to the upper city.  On the map it's the road that leads to the bottom center.  It also reminded me of the road into Petra- paved with massive blocks of marble that have over time gotten all jumbled up.  But very impressive.

Here's I'm looking back at the Library from the Temple of Hadrian.

This is the Temple of Hadrian.  He really got around the Roman Empire.  I went to that exhibit at the British Museum in London about him.  There Hadrian's Wall in England.  When I was in Athens one of the major ancient gates of the city was built by him.  Here he had this temple and a massive gate.  In Rome he has his tomb which is now a fortress by the Vatican.  I think Edirne in Turkey started out as Hadrianopolis, but I could be wrong about that.   Anyway, this is a very interesting and well-preserved facade.  I don't know if it managed to survive or if it's been reconstructed (probably reconstructed given the odds) but it's well done and really beautiful.

Here I'm looking back down the street toward the Library.

Now I've made it all the way up the street to the upper city.  It was the government district.  This is how the the main road looks up here.  On one side is a small Odeon (for both plays and for citizen assemblies) and on the other a smaller governmental Agora.  There's not much left of that, but there are a few low walls and fragments of columns. 

This is a door inside the Odeon.

I just liked this photo.  I think this was taken in the Theater.  It's looking out over the ruins of the upper story of the stage.

And I like this photo - I'm not sure why, but I do.

Finally, interesting (but not true) story told to us by the guide.  This is a carving of the goddess Nike (Victory).  He told us that this stone is the inspiration for the Nike Swoosh.  I suppose it's possible - it is Nike and it is a swoosh!  But I looked up Nike Swoosh online and I think the woman who designed it wasn't running around Efes looking for inspiration!  :-)  But it's a good story.

That's it for Efes.  Definitely worth seeing and 2.5 hours is a good amount of time.  I hope they uncover more of the city in the future - it would also be interesting to hike up the mountains to see the view from the tops.  But it's all restricted access right now.  

Oh, and here's one more photo of the sun setting over Gümbet Bay from my hotel.