Wanderings and Musings: Ephesus Part 1

I'm going to write about Ephesus in two different blogs because the internet connections we've been able to find don't seem to handle so many pictures, and we've taken a lot over the last 2 days (just under 300. I won't post them all; we need something to show when we get home, and it's likely to outlast your interest all in one go).

Our cruise ship docked in Kusadasi, which is a small town that did not have any real tourism business until about 10 years ago when Royal Caribbean bought the port and added it to their itineraries. From here, it is about a 20 mite drive to the ancient ruins that once were the city of Ephesus. Our day out included a tour of the ruins as well as a visit to a carpet weaving workshop.

We had a live tour guide, but we also had headsets so that what he was saying was transmitted to our little radios. The true upside of this arrangement was that we could be standing 30 feet away from him so we could be in the shade and still hear what he was saying.

This was the main entrance to the city. They had a fairly sophisticated sewer system, as well as a public health policy that everyone coming into the city first stopped at the baths to suppress the spread of disease. Then they would pass by this small theater where people would gather to discuss political, social, and religious issues of the day.

The remains of the baths are back behind Dane in this picture.

And these are terra cotta pipes that were part of the sewer system. The smaller pipes (female pipes) were used to bring in clean water and larger pipes (male) were used to dispose of dirty water. This is why fountains here were given female names.

These were supposed to to be examples of three different types of columns used in their architecture, but they all look the same to me, and they don't follow the same differences as the Greek columns.

Proof we are together,

From the entrance of the city there was this long marble promenade that lead down to where the market place and grand theatre were. Marble, while lovely, is quite slippery and a terrible material for a sloped walkway.

Slippery, but very very beautiful.

There are huge pieces of marble that are carved with all kind of different designs.

I don't know if you can see it, but there are two people carved on the marble back behind Dane. They were prominent members of society in Ephesus, and as such were honored by this monument.

The main walkway of the city is between 2 hills, and the view from basically any part of it is pretty awesome.

And looking back up the hill is cool, too.

There were lots of cats just hanging out around the place.

This is supposedly the tomb of the first doctor who ever performed a c-section. I have no idea if it's true (you start to get the sense after enough guided tours that sometimes they might just make stuff up).

This was Ephesus' version of the trevi fountain.

Yay for shade!

Here was the public restroom. It creeps me out to think about using it.

When it was functioning, this restroom had a decorative pool in the center. Dane was so sad that it wasn't there anymore.

Ephesus had the 3rd largest library in the ancient world. This was the front.

There were pomegranate trees all over the place.

Back to the library for a moment.m We stopped here for a few minutes because we'd lost someone in our group.

From the library, we headed over to where the ancient agora (marketplace ) was. Here there was the unique circumstance that it was not that crowded, so Dane kept saying, run up there and I'll take a picture. If I'd said that to him, he would have scoffed. It was so hot.