Friday 21st Kusadasi / Ephesus (Turkey)

Well we pulled into Kusadasi early this morning – to another perfect Mediterranean day.  We’d heard that Ephesus gets super crowded so had opted to get a bus tour up there leaving at 7:30.  We’re glad we did – as by the time we finished the place was crowded.

We had a tour guide who looked just like Jackie Chan & he had a similar American accent & smile.  It made for an interesting tour. 

Ephesus was one of the really significant Greek & then Roman cities which has a special place in the history of both cultures as well as Christianity.  The city used to be accessible by ship up a river, however it silted up & therefore people moved out.  It has an incredible amphitheatre which could seat over 70,000 people.  This would have been visible to anyone arriving by ship – a great way to impress people! 

Archaeologists have been working at the site for well over 100 years however they have excavated only about 15% of the city.  What they have uncovered so far is incredible.  And they’re currently working on a set of terrace houses which appear to hold more information about the domestic life of the city.

There is a library there – the Celsus library, which was apparently the 3^rd largest library in the world at the time with 12,000 scrolls.  The library is the 1^st building that they know of which was built with double walls.  This was designed because single walled buildings allow moisture to travel into the building & this risks scrolls getting mouldy.  So they built a double walled building to protect the scrolls.

The Celsus Library

Apparently the library in Alexandria saw the Ephesus library as a competitor so stopped sending them scrolls.  So they had to make their own & as they couldn’t get papyrus from Egypt they had to invent ways or writing on surfaces.  And so this is where parchment was invented.

Like Olympia there is a museum which holds many of the finds from Ephesus.  It is in a nearby town of Selcuk, but we had no way of getting there, which was a bit of a disappointment.  We’ve found that visiting both the site of the ruins and the museum which relates to it is a great way to get the total picture of what has been found.

Anyway we did the tour with a guide who could really bring the city its people and culture to life.   Then it was back on the bus & back to town (about 20 kms).  Part of the tour deal is that you have to go through a demo in a Turkish carpet factory.  It was interesting & we learned quite a bit, but then had to extricate ourselves from some moderate pressure to purchase a carpet.  And no worries, the sales guys were very happy to sell you anything & the starting price for anything that we vaguely liked was at least $5K & prices climbed to over $250K.

We thought the carpet sellers were a bit pushy, then we walked through the market – wow – talk about pushy.  But hey – that’s their livelihood. 

We took a walk out to a fort on an island (now connected to the mainland by a pier) & poked around before having a local snack of calamari & Turkish savoury pastries & Efes brand beer, looking out to sea & islands – so good.

We poked around a few stores, looking at Turkish products, talking to some locals, bought some beautiful Turkish delight with pistachios in it – not sweet at all and really nice!  Then it was off to the ship & out to sea again.  Not a bad day all up.