Ephesus, Turkey, August 28, 2011

The port we are sailing into is Kusadasi, but the city we are visiting today is Ephesus approximately a half hour drive.  We are making three stops, the final resting place of the Virgin Mary, a church established by St. John that is said to hold his tomb and the ancient Greek and the Roman city of Ephesus.  I've always been a bit of a skeptic but all of my internal alarms went off after listening to our tour guide's narration of the first two stops.  More on that later, here are some beautiful shots of the harbor and the drive to our destinations.  Another hazy morning,

Our pilot boat

 

There is always an old fort at the stops.

A boat atop a boat.

 

 The finally resting place of Mary is little more than a square room with a shrine in the middle.  According to our guide, a nun had taken ill and began to have visions and started hearing voices in the early 1800's.  She revealed in a trance that Mary left Jerusalem with St. John and he built her a house in the mountains of Ephesus. That is all the verification that the tour guide could tell us.  I did some research after returning home and this house was found with a shrine and a statue of the Virgin Mary with her hands broken off and it best fit the description of the sick nun.  With no real proof I couldn't help thinking that this would be a great way to add a little tourist money to the country, but that's the skeptic I am. Here are some photos:

Obviously not the statue that was originally found.

The roof

This is it, no pictures are allowed inside.

Apparently there is much controversy about the resting place of Mary.  I found another site on the internet describing her tomb in Jerusalem. 

On to the next mystery, the church and tomb of St. John.  I also did not buy the tour guides lecture about St. John and his church in Ephesus.  Little was known about the original church  but it was rebuilt in the 6th century over the ruins of an old church.  When pressed the tour guide said that it's unknown if St. John is buried here, but he is believed to have lived his last days in Ephesus.  When researching St. John, I found that there were 3 different Johns:  John the Evangelist, John of Patmos and John the Baptist.  It's all very confusing but still interesting.  The history of all the different religions I encountered on this trip was fascinating. 

This looks original but I'd have no idea what it says.

Ruins of the church built in 600 AD

I doubt the tomb would of been inscribed in two languages.  Clearly this was placed here for the tourists.

This is claimed to by the tomb of St. John.

On to the last and my favorite part of this port, the ancient city of Ephesus.  This was originally a Greek city and later a Roman one.  In the first century AD this was the second largest city in the world with an estimated population of 250,000.   Only a small portion of Ephesus has been excavated, when complete it will be larger than Pompeii.  Traveling through the area I could see many places in the hills with ancient stones protruding from the earth.  Enjoy:

There were so many places yet to be excavated.

 

The Roman baths.

The clay water pipes of the Romans

 

An ancient message.

 

Remnants of homes.

The theater

Beautiful statues.

The marble road leading to the library.

The details are amazing.

WOW!

The latrine, the story is that the slaves would go sit on the cold marble to warm it up for their masters.  A slave's work is never done.

The 2 story library.

Through these doors lie the brothel.

Ancient sculpture

The archeologists estimate that after 150 years Ephesus is only 20% excavated.  When you look at the surrounding area there are ancient blocks, bricks, stones everywhere, this is a huge sight.

On our way back to the ship our guide was explaining the culture and history of Turkey and Islam.  She told us that she couldn't participate in Ramadan because of her profession and during Ramadan Muslims are forbidden to lie.  As soon as that statement came out of her mouth she tried to make a retraction, it was clear she was embarrassed.  I know she was touting the company line but she didn't believe many of the stories she was telling.  The stories made the trip even better, whether they are true, partly true or downright false, who cares. 

My stop in Asia was successful, I can now say I've been on 4 continents, the next one is coming in July 2012 when we go to Australia.  We stopped at the local carpet weaving destination on the way back but Gary and I slipped away and walked back to the ship on our own.  I'm so glad we did since I got some wonderful pictures of the harbor and the locals.

This is the father of modern Turkey, Mustafa Ataturk

I loved these little shops.

 

Fishing for dinner.

 

A use for the Turkish carpets?

Untangling the fishing net.

 

 

Busy harbor.

Tomorrow's stop is Athens, the home of democracy, the Olympics and my most anticipated stop of the cruise to see the Parthenon.  From my first history class I've longed to see the Parthenon.  I'm certain it will be worth the 50 years I've waited.