Ephesus

Ephesus

We were up early to be some of the first people to enter when the site opened. I was first in the queue to buy a ticket but those with museum passes (a pass that enables holders access to dozens of museums for a slight discount if you visit all the museums on the scheme. But another overlooked benefit is the ability to jump the queue and walk straight through the turnstyles) walked past me.

A plan of the site, very important to plan a tour route and to take a photo so that you can navigate your way around the site in the absence of a paper copy or contradictory, confusing or an absence of signs.    

There were plenty of buildings still standing.

Columns had survived or their remains were not so severely damaged that they were easy to re-assemble. 

One of the few places where I encountered a tour group that had got in before me. It was in one of the bath houses. These were up market locations as can be guessed by the excellent stonework and the smooth, flat floors of the original buildings. 

There were plenty of other buildings and columns left to explore...

...another range...

...and yet more....

...with some having some helping modern intervention to help them add to the ambience, until...

...the most recognised symbol of the Ephesus, although the light was poor due to an overcast sky that didn't project the facade in its best light. 

I entered the site of some ancient terraced houses for which a separate ticket is required. It is an area of mainly mud brick houses so it is preserved under a large waterproof roof. But it had some fabluous treasures such as these marbled, marbled slabs...or are they results or an artist's exquiste skills?

A view of sone of the motley collection of buildings materials used, such as tiles, mud bricks and rough stone. 

Some of the wall decorations that weren't damaged are exquisite such as these...

    

...and other examples such as these beautiful creations. 

From the top of the tarraced housing section, visitors emerge and have a great view down along the main road. Don't be fooled, this is still early. At the height of the summer tourist season, you would not be able to see the stone slabs of the road due to the numbers of tourists.

A view back up the main road through the city, happily for me totally empty of tourists that would block out the view.

Near the bottom of the town is a giant amphithetre...one side...

...and the other side....

...but it was a long way down the road towards the harbour before one could got a view of the whole affair, but its majesty is lost in a photo without having experienced standing on the stage and imaging the roaring crowds on the seats of the amphitheatre above. 

There was a selection of sarcophaguses en route to the harbour. 

     

                             

I wanted to see the harbour, although it has long since been silted up, partly due to the uplift of the land in the area due to plate tectonics. The area was roped off and inaccessible, just like it was on my last visit. Perhaps it is not open to the public. I doubt whether it is anything more than a field, but I would have liked to have witnessed the field where the important harbour had once been.

One option was to walk down to the lower car park and past the site of the Temple of Artemis. It was one of the wonders of the ancient world. Artists' interpretations of the building are dramatic. The reality is that now there is little evidence of any of the grandeur. It is just a (modern resurrected) partial column in a field to mark the site. The stone has been recycled into hundreds of local buildings as the locals looted the site for building materials.

I took a long loop back towards Selcuk. I passed several ruins, fenced off but with no information boards as these were minor structures of little interest other than to archaeologists. 

Another arch...

...and a long piece of wall...

...a sign to another onument en route but it was closed due to archaeological work being undertaken...

...I wasn't going to visit this site as it wasn't on my list of things to see but it seemed to be on my route. I followed the signs. After Jesus Christ was cruxified, his mother Mary eventually retired to Ephesus. At a junction, one sign pointed away from Selcuk and indicated that it was another seven kilometres in the wrong direction. I would have visited but this was too far to walk there and back. I turned and walked into Selcuk. 

There are several sights of interest in the centre such as the two aqueducts. This one was not completely intact and a pair of cranes had made use of one of the columns to build a nest. 

The station hosts an old locomotive in the sidings so there is something for everyone.

I got a taxi back to the hostel. The owner, Attila, had once run it as a hostel complete with a bar and swimming pool. He had since leased out the main building and it was now the Efes Golden Garden Hotel, a more up market operation during the season but closed out of season.

Atilla still ran a small operation as a hostel for regular visitors, hence we were able to stay there. The reverse of the sign still had the original name.