For tourists only able to do a short vacation to Turkey, after Istanbul, Ephesus is where they come.
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"Ephesus was a city in Ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital. During the Classical Greek era, it was one of twelve cities that were members of the Ionian League. The city came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC.
The city was famous in its day for the nearby Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Its many other monumental buildings included the Library of Celsus and a amphitheater capable of holding 24,000 spectators.
Ephesus was a recipient city of one of the Pauline biblical epistles and one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in the Book of Revelation. The Gospel of John may have been written there, and it was the site of several 5th-century Christian Councils (Council of Ephesus). The city was destroyed by the Goths in 263 A.D. Although it was afterwards rebuilt, its importance as a commercial center declined as the harbour was slowly silted up by the Küçükmenderes River. In 614 A.D., it was partially destroyed by an earthquake.
Today, the ruins of Ephesus are a favorite international and local tourist attraction. In 2015, the ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site."
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"Ephesus was a city in Ancient Greece on the coast of Ionia, 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) southwest of present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital. During the Classical Greek era, it was one of twelve cities that were members of the Ionian League. The city came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC.
The city was famous in its day for the nearby Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Its many other monumental buildings included the Library of Celsus and a amphitheater capable of holding 24,000 spectators.
Ephesus was a recipient city of one of the Pauline biblical epistles and one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in the Book of Revelation. The Gospel of John may have been written there, and it was the site of several 5th-century Christian Councils (Council of Ephesus). The city was destroyed by the Goths in 263 A.D. Although it was afterwards rebuilt, its importance as a commercial center declined as the harbour was slowly silted up by the Küçükmenderes River. In 614 A.D., it was partially destroyed by an earthquake.
Today, the ruins of Ephesus are a favorite international and local tourist attraction. In 2015, the ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site."
 |  It's relatively both large and compact - as we walk the length of it, we saw one sight after another. |
We begin at the less popular lower start gate - tour buses drop their tourists at the higher elevation upper gate, and pick them up at the bottom. We found a parking spot, and slowly walked our way upward, and then cruised back down hill to the car.
It starts off low key, but quickly ramps up (literally).
It starts off low key, but quickly ramps up (literally).
The harbor promenade - lots of reconstruction going on now - we can only view it from a distance.
Such international performers as Sting and Pavarotti have played here in modern times.
The school field trips are in full swing.
A long view of the harbor promenade from the bleachers with a glimpse of the silted harbor at the far end. The big lift assists in the continual putting-back-together and stabilization of the amphitheater.
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Looking down into the commercial agora (permanent market place), and the remains of the Library of Celsus in back (between the columnar trees).
Still in the theater, but about to leave. The typical stage, but huger, lies beyond Gerri.
Outside the theater now, seeing the Agora again - 6 -10 feet of soil had been removed to reveal it a hundred years ago.
Modern light roofing and walls cover an excavated hillside of terraced homes of the rich (and famous?).
The Library of Celsus - it contained a great many scrolls.
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Apparently this is ancient graffiti - without corroborating data Gerri kept her doubts - on the library steps.
The scrolls were stored here, at the back wall of the library.
The backside of the facade...
The plaza in front of the library, with the gates to the Agora off to one side.
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Decorations in those gates...
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Inside the Agora - columns, raised back up, which supported a covered promenade in front of the shops, which encircled the entire Agora square.
Looks like the work of Byzantines in the centuries after the fall of the Romans - piecing blocks back together for their own purposes.
Ah, we recognize these - blocks that formed a water main, each one the weight of a Volkswagen Beetle.
A fig-eating bird? ...at least he's the color of fig fruit...
Archaeological digging began in 1863 - it appears this little line of rail based transport goes back to then.
And now we're in the terraced homes, under the encapsulating light framework. A walkway of steel and structural glass panels takes you through the ruins. Like the city tour, we enter at the bottom and pop out the top.
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We could kinda see what is original, and what has been pieced back together (like the wood beam topped columns. This terraced hill was a concentrated complex of upper class homes, really mansions.
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Decorative ink work remains on the walls here and there.
Plumbing and a pantry with amphorae pots, both made from the pottery processes - phew!
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 |  It's amazing all this interior art survived the destruction of the centuries. |  |
We love the mosaic works - all this is done with index-finger-nailed size flat stones of various shades and colors set into mortar.
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A final mosaic, and we recognize the under structure that creates the heated floor of a Roman bath spa house.
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Now back outside the terraced houses, we come upon, you know what this, the public poop place. The description talks of this being a spot where socializing was done (a two for one number two), and it was apparently pleasant enough with a continuous flushing (to where we can only guess - but the Romans were smart so we're guessing not straight to the harbor).
Out of one form of temple, and onto another more expected type...
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This place very much reminded us of the concentration of ruins in Rome, we see one installation after another - the tour information said 2-4 hours (it was closer to 4 hours for us).
Come on ladies, your backdrop is actually younger than you - lol.
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The Rick Steves' Travel Guides do cover Ephesus - so we get good background on what we're looking upon.
This was part of a fountain, with water pouring out the notch at the base of this scribed block of stone.
This marble stones are original - horses and wagons traveled an alternate path to and from the harbor.
We're still going up, while the tour bus peeps go down...
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It's in the upper 80s now - we're happy it's shaded today, especially with all that marble we have to walk on.
We're seeing the ruins, which are amazing - imagine what it looked like more than 2,000 years ago.
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Cheer up Simba, tomorrow is bath day...
Ah, another assembly hall, now only the second one we've ever seen...
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Transcribing the conversation "Well, Simba, she's a curious one, her coat would be so much softer if she'd take more than one bath a week. Really, there's tourists here from all over the world, and she has to appear like that! It's an abomination I tell you, an abomination! I need to take this up at the assembly hall gathering on Monday, it's gotta change. Hmmm, maybe you shouldn't be so rough on her, she's your mom after all, and it was just Mother's Day, just the other day."
More plumbing finds, perhaps some poop pipe...seen as we turn around and head back down the path.
Right before exiting we visit the Church of St. Mary.
"The Church of Mary was an ancient Christian cathedral dedicated to the Theotokos ("Mother of God", i.e., the Virgin Mary). It is also known as the Church of the Councils because two councils of importance to the history of Early Christianity are assumed to have been held within. The church is located in the south stoa of the Olympieion (Temple of Hadrian Olympios) next to the harbor of Ephesus.
The church is dated to the early 5th century (after the decline of the city at it's most splendid more than 200 years earlier), coinciding with the Council of Ephesus, the Third Ecumenical Council in 431, suggesting that it may have been built specifically for that Council, during which the title of Theotokos for the "Mother of God" was declared orthodox. The latest archaeological evidence suggests that the church was built on the ruins of an earlier Roman basilica-like building abandoned around the 3rd century A.D., known as the "Hall of the Muses". Around 500 A.D., the church was expanded into a monumental cathedral, whose apse and pillars partially still stand today on the site.
The church served as a cathedral and was the seat of the Bishop of Ephesus throughout Late Antiquity (towards the 8th century A.D.)."
"The Church of Mary was an ancient Christian cathedral dedicated to the Theotokos ("Mother of God", i.e., the Virgin Mary). It is also known as the Church of the Councils because two councils of importance to the history of Early Christianity are assumed to have been held within. The church is located in the south stoa of the Olympieion (Temple of Hadrian Olympios) next to the harbor of Ephesus.
The church is dated to the early 5th century (after the decline of the city at it's most splendid more than 200 years earlier), coinciding with the Council of Ephesus, the Third Ecumenical Council in 431, suggesting that it may have been built specifically for that Council, during which the title of Theotokos for the "Mother of God" was declared orthodox. The latest archaeological evidence suggests that the church was built on the ruins of an earlier Roman basilica-like building abandoned around the 3rd century A.D., known as the "Hall of the Muses". Around 500 A.D., the church was expanded into a monumental cathedral, whose apse and pillars partially still stand today on the site.
The church served as a cathedral and was the seat of the Bishop of Ephesus throughout Late Antiquity (towards the 8th century A.D.)."
We now arrive in Izmir at our 4th floor penthouse AirBnB - and are looking for this guy, our host.
Why are we here - for some decompression from our whirl-wind 3 1/2 weeks of touring, and to see some friends of Gerri she hasn't seen in 21 years. More of this story in the next chapter.
Why are we here - for some decompression from our whirl-wind 3 1/2 weeks of touring, and to see some friends of Gerri she hasn't seen in 21 years. More of this story in the next chapter.
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 Dinner is served, Banu picks out a good fish for us. Here's the before and after, so nicely prepared. |  |
We try some more special Turkish liquor commonly consumed with fish dinners. This little fish was our appetizer, in the mullet family.
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 Then, with Banu and Dan, we hit a little club and get a megadose of Efes. Yeah, this was Gerri's idea, Tim says, "You know you're gonna have to help with this gut bomb?!". |  |
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