Crumbling marble fountains, ancient settlements buried under Greek and Roman ruins. A sparkling jewel of a city. Here was the vast temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Ruled once by Alexander the Great. Visited by Socrates and Archimedes. Home and burial place of Jesus’s disciple John (writer of the book of Revelations). Home of The Apostle Paul. And the place where the Virgin Mary lived out her days. The city of Ephesus had a history and energy that took our breath away.
A sharp intake of breath times two as we saw this iconic building come into view. The Celsus library is one of the most beautiful structures in Ephesus. It was built in 117 A.D. by Galius Julius Aquilaa as a tomb for his father Gaius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus. The 12,00 scrolls and manuscripts were kept in cupboards in niches on the walls. It was the third richest library in ancient times after Alexandra and Pergamum.
We felt so lucky to have Azize guiding us through the site. She has such in depth knowledge about the history and the details of life here. She gave us a real feel for the people who lived here over the many centuries. Azize took us to the upper gate to start our day in this beautiful place there is NO shade in Ephesus and the mercury was already rising at 9am. From the upper gate we walk down from the lower gate we walk up – no walking up hill in this heat! The first building we saw on entering the city is a bath house. In the hope of preventing disease it was mandatory for every traveller to have a good scrub down before they proceeded further. This also was the gate that more important travellers would enter. We are walking on the path that the Academics and philosophers would discuss their ideas and business propositions.
After solving the world problems we walked to the hospital. The Greeks regarded snakes as sacred and used them in healing rituals as snake venom was thought to be magical and their skin-shedding was viewed as a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Look who was in the waiting room Poor Kitty looks like she’s been waiting a while to see the Doc.
The Public Toliets. In Roman times doing your business was a social affair, time to sit with your mates side by side. Have a chat solve the world’s problems and listen to a full set of musicians playing for your pooping pleasure – We decided being a toilet musician in Roman times, was probably the worst job you could have! On second thoughts though cleaning up the amphitheatre after a heavy Saturday night was probably worse. Please note the columns in the second picture. This was where the musicians played. On a stage no less !
Ephesus was home to the super rich. The incredible wealth they had was shown in their gorgeous houses (and fancy public loos). We loved the beauty of the decorations in the rooms. Marble inlay, mosaic amazing tiles set on angles to form patterns, stone flags, plants, animals and a vast array of mythological scenes or characters. The painted frescoes, (some of which looked as if they were done yesterday ) depicted flowers, garlands, birds animals and Greek philosophers, gods and heroes.
2000 years ago some naughty little child scratched these pictures of gladiators on the walls of his/her bedroom! We were reminded of our of Claudia, (Roman name !!) who scratched her moniker in beautiful cursive script on our antique piano when she was 8. sighhhhh some things never change xx
The ampitheatre 24.000 seats and 1000 standing places. Served not only for dramatic performances, but also for demonstations of a social, political, economic, religious nature and for those infamous gladiator games. I felt sick for those poor animals and people all housed underground waiting for the horrible entertainment to begin. These are the holding cells and tunnel they would have used to get out to the arena and the awaiting, roaring crowds… Is that Spartacus?
The famous marble road leading from the library to the sea. merchants, tradespeople and visitors leaving their ships in the harbour walked up to the city on this road. We are now at the lower gate. On the marble road, there is an advertisement for a brothel. The sign shows a footprint, walk this way; the woman’s head symbolizes the women waiting in the brothel and the heart shows, love. The third pic is a secret symbol christians used to let other christian know there were here in the city.
The sea used to be 5 kms closer than it is now. In fact the demise of Ephesus and its eventual abandonment was because the sea retreated and left a huge marsh land that became infested with malaria carrying mosquitos. After all the thousands of years of human history, battles and conflict in this magnificent city, the tiny mosquito ended it all.
The House of Virgin Mary
The House of The Virgin Mary is located on the top of Bulbul mountain. It is the place where many people think Mary spent her last days. It is thought, she came to Ephesus with Saint John, who spent several years in the area spreading Christianity.
I like to think she spent her last days in this truly, beautiful, peaceful place. She lost what all us mothers fear the most.
This is “Water of Mary”, a spring found at the exit of the church area and where a rather salty water, with curative properties, can be drunk by all. We all drank the water.
People write and attach their prayers and thoughts to the wall. We wrote our messages to Mary.
As we learn on this journey through Greece and Turkey nothing was isolated. Culture and belief systems didn’t appear from nowhere. The beliefs of each people were layered. Some parts remained transparent, revealing the practises of the religion before. And here at Ephesus it was the same. An force far older than the Greek and Roman ideologies laid the foundations of this city and in the choice of the goddess who should lead it.
Ephesus was dedicated to the goddess Artemis – However the goddess who we know as Artemis Ephesia, acquired her form from a goddess Cybele from 7000 B.C. worshipped by the Çatalhöyük people. She was the mother of everything, a powerful being. Her influence spread to the four corners of Anatolia, then Mesopotamia, Egypt, Arabia and even to Scandinavia. The mother goddess after thousands of years of evolution became Artemis Ephesia.
The Temple of Artemis built in her honour, was known as the most famous treasure of the past, and Ephesus located in its vicinity, was considered the cradle of civilization from the cultural and social points of view.
It is more palatable to the people to keep some similarities change the clothes or wear some clothes in this case. The power of women. I liked that, 7000 years of powerful women.
