I started the day off early at 7 a.m. - unheard of for American students in the summer. The breakfast we got at the hostel - the A and Zed Guest House (or Australian and New Zealand Guest House) was great. We then decided to hire a bus for the day. That took us to our first stop - the ruins of Ephesus.
Ephesus was a major ancient city with a population of approximately 250,000 people. It was a bustling trade town with access to the Aegean. Interestingly, the city where we are staying - Selcuk, was actually the original site of Ephesus. However, one of the rulers of the city decided he didn't like that it was built on a floodplain, so he built an entirely new city - what we now consider Ephesus - in a valley uphill from Selcuk. Nobody in the old town wanted to move to the new city, though, so the ruler decided to block the sewage and drainage pipes and flood the city and so convinced the people to move.
Now, Ephesus is considered one of the best rebuilt ancient cities in the world. And it is impressive.
We started walking through the city near the odeum where governing decisions were made. We then made our way down a street called, appropriately, the Marble Street, for all the marble that was on it. Apparently, the columns that ran along either side of the street were each 8 meters (24 feet) tall. Pretty impressive:
The Marble Street winds its way down to the Library of Celsus. Though the library was not very big in and of itself, the building was impressive:
From the Library of Celsus, the Marble Street makes its way past houses. On the the side of the road there is a marble slab with a foot on it:
The foot apparently points towards the brothel, which is conveniently located in front of the Celsus Library (really, Greeks, could you be a little more discreet?):
After the foot, the Marble Street goes by the Grand Theatre, an impressive ampitheatre that used to seat 25,000 people - 4000 more people than the Dean Dome. The ruins today haven't been reconstructed to its full capacity yet:
The acoustics were incredible - William performed a monologue from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar on the floor and we could hear him near the top row of seats - here's me from where we sat to listen:
It was, needless to say, very impressive. If you look at this last picture, you can see a white road going off perpendicular to the theater. That was the famous Arcadian Way, along which shops and salesmen did business. That road ended where the sea began - the city of Ephesus was a port, after all. But what doomed the city was the silting of its harbor, similar to what happened with Troy and other cities in the Aegean. The city is now 7 kilometers from the ocean, showing how much the geography of the region has changed.
But that was just the start of the day. After the ruins, we went to the place where the Virgin Mary reputedly died. According to the history guides, St John was entrusted with Mary's care after Jesus was crucified. Since he was in charge of spreading the word in Asia Minor, he brought Mary with him, and she settled in the hills above Ephesus, then the major city I described earlier. According to different sources, Mary died in a house in those mountains.
In the 19th century, a blind German nun who had never been out of Germany reportedly had a vision that she had seen the resting place of the Virgin Mary. Several expeditions set out, using her directions, and supposedly found the place right where she said it was. Now, it attracts a lot of tourists, Christian and Muslim pilgrims and Catholics from commoners to Popes John Paul I, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI. The house itself is very unassuming:
But it was interesting to see it regardless.
After that, we went to an archeology museum for about 45 minutes, then we were taken out to dinner by Mrs. Gurel, Emily's family's friends from Izmir. Mrs Gurel was very kind and took us to a school of nomads who were being taught how to make rugs. We ate a very good lunch and then headed out to the beach.
The beach was fabulous - we have all been craving going swimming since we got to Turkey, and the beach we went to was perfect. The water was warm - it is the Aegean, after all - the sand was warm, the sun was hot (but not too hot), there weren't too many people - over all, it was great. We stayed for a couple hours then went back to the hostel and changed. Pictures up from that soon!
Thirty minutes later, we all piled back into our minibus to go to Sirince, a small Greek town in the mountains above Selcuk. The town was very beautiful and picturesque - all the buildings were painted white, the streets were cobblestone, and it was set in a olive and grape growing area. We walked around for a good while, then headed to dinner. The town reminded me a lot of Napa Valley - it is a wine area, after all - and the coffee hills of Costa Rica. Here are some pictures:
Tomorrow we leave entirely too early for Pamukkale, where the Calcium baths are. Should be fun. Anyway, I'll try to keep posting regularly. Peace!
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