Day 12 - Ephesus

Ephesus[*] is the most thoroughly excavated and also the most crowded of the ancient cities we visited on the tour. It is both the most famous and the easiest to visit. (It is a regular excursion for tour ships that visit Turkey, reachable from both ports of Kuşadası and Izmir.

We got an early start this morning and managed to beat many of the other tour groups, but they caught up with us! When it was time to leave, it was hard to find our bus because there were so many other buses in the parking lot.



There seems to be a whole colony of cats living in Ephesus. This one posed so nicely for me. It reminded me of the Sphinx in Egypt.
The Library of Celsus[*] was the third largest library of the ancient world (after the great Library of Alexandria and the library of Pergamum). As a librarian, I had to get my picture taken there! Much of the library and all its contents were destroyed by fire and earthquake.


Terrace Apartments

Traveler's Tip:
The Terrace Apartments are a separate admission ticket. Don't miss them.

Another interesting site at Ephesus is the Terrace Apartment[*] excavation. These were the living quarters of some of the more wealthy inhabitants. (There are likely hundreds of other dwellings still buried under nearby farmlands.)

The picture on the right shows the thin layer of marble which originally covered the walls. They are trying to recreate some of these wall coverings from the fragments of marble uncovered at the site. They jokingly refer to this as "the world's largest jigsaw puzzle."

They have excavated some amazing mosaics and wall paintings from Roman times. Here are a few examples.

House of the Virgin Mary

What I learned:
Mary is also respected in the Moslem religion, as is Jesus. Jesus is considered a prophet. Mary is respected for the virgin birth.

After touring the ancient city of Ephesus, most tour members went back to the hotel in Kuşadası. However, a few of us decided to go to visit the House of the Virgin Mary[*]. According to tradition and some scholarly works, after the death of Jesus, his mother Mary spent the remainder of her life here in Ephesus. This appears to be a chapel built on the site of the house, rather than her house itself.

Goodbye Dinner

And finally, it was time for our goodbye dinner. Several of us had bought baggy trousers, either at the farmer's market in Korkuteli or later in Pamukkale. We decided to wear them for our goodbye dinner. Throughout the trip, Tom had often referred to himself as "the feudal lord" so Mine decided to dress him up appropriately (and of course, display the proper respect).

There was a beautiful sunset as we walked to dinner. Somehow, this seemed really appropriate - a beautiful end of the day celebrating the end of a wonderful trip.

We celebrated our new friendships with a few last laughs over dinner. (Unfortunately, from where I was sitting, I couldn't get a picture of one of the couples.) Thank you all. It was a great tour! Şerefe!



Day 13 - departure

The tour ended after breakfast. I did one last "buddy check" with my buddy as we were on the plane back to Istanbul.