Kusadasi/Ephesus

Kusadasi is a lovely resort town on the Aegean coast of Turkey, some 50 odd miles from Izmir. I had booked a private tour of Ephesus and my guide was waiting for me. Tilda, from Izmir. Extremely affable and knowledgeable. We got along like a house on fire. She whisked me off to Ephesus, about 10 miles away, hoping to see the House of Mary before the hordes arrived. Alas, half of Eastern Europe was there! According to tradition, Mary came with St. John, for protection, somewhere between 42 And 50 AD and this was her last home. Only a small part of the house would be original. What is interesting is the prayer wall where people tie prayes to the stones with pieces of ribbon or rags.....or even a scarf.

How to begin to describe the scene when we came down from the mountain!!!!! :). Ephesus spread out before me......and the cruising hordes. if Ghengis Khan had encountered them he surely would have lost!!!! Haha!! What can you do? Well, get a private guide because you can go at your own speed and sit in the shade and wait for a lull in the madness!

Seriously, Ephesus is remarkable. It dates back to pre-Ionion times of Mother Goddess worshipers. The Temple of Artemis (ca.550 BCE), she of the numerous breasts, was one of the wonders of the ancient world. By the 11th century BCE, the Ionians set up a new city which became a prosperous trade and banking center. In the cirst century AD, Ephesus was the largest city of the east after Alexandria. The city fell to various nations over the centuries, and by 133 BCE, Ephesus had become a Roman city. What is visible today are Roman ruins dating from that time to 262 AD when the Goths visited much destruction. Ephesus never recovered it's former glory and had, by the 15th century declined to the status of a village. In addition, the silting up of the river sounded the death knell to maritime commerce and the city lay in ruins under layers of earth until modern excavations and restorations.

Highlights: The Great Theatre which seated 24,000; the extraordinary Library of Celsus, the most beautiful ruin; the Agora; the Odeon; the Temple of Hadrian; the marble street with perfect drainage; the fountains, baths and he public loos, with every mod con!!!! Yes running water....clay pipes lined with lead. Of course, there are columns, statues, pediments, etc. all over the place. Excavations, many of which are sponsored by Austria, are ongoing and one can see just how extensive the city once was.

The most exciting part of the visit for me was the Terrace Houses, the excavation of which is fairly recent. One entire area has been enclosed so that reconstruction work can proceed unhampered by the elements. These were the houses of rich merchants, of varying sizes and designs, joined by common walls.....think condo townhouses!!!!..... and cascading down the hillside.

In addition to the special material which encloses the area under a soaring roof, the floors have been covered with heavy plexiglass so that one can see the restored mosaic floors without walking on them. One proceeds up and up on staircases, past each house until one is about three or four stories high. All the houses are visible and one gets a remarkable idea of the layout. At each house along the way, one can see beautiful mosaic floors, wall paintings and decorations. The working tables of the archaeologists are laid out in some of the larger rooms, but off limits, and one can see the amazing work of piecing fragments of marble or paintings together....it is a jigsaw puzzle. Remarkable work.