Ephesus

Ephesus was one of the most important cities of the ancient world.   One of the major trading ports in the Mediterranean, it was originally settled thousands of years ago, and reached its zenith in the first and second centuries AD.  It remained an important port until the fifth century. However, by the time it was abandoned in the middle ages it was little more than a village.

The main drag through Ephesus

We follow in the path of ancient Greeks and Romans down streets of marble stones polished by two thousand years of footsteps.  A walk along a colonnaded arcade  brings us to an ancient 25,000 seat amphitheater built into a hillside.   It is believed to be the largest theater in the ancient world.  Plays, concerts, poetry readings, speeches and gladiator bouts  entertained patrons for over two thousand years.  Sting played here in the 90s.  Katherine McDowell even recited Shakespeare here in 2012.

Kate holds forth in the amphitheater 

 We wander among the tumbled ruins of ancient fountains, houses and shops in the Agora.  Fragments of towering columns,  great arches, and mortarless stone walls stand as reminders of this once great city.   Slaves, saints and sinners called it home.  Once an important seaport, Ephesus  fell victim to siltation of its harbor from the nearby river and the remains of the city is now miles inland.   Abandoned in the Middle Ages, Ephesus was literally buried by the sands of time.  Today as we pass, the ancient stones bake in the afternoon sun.

Hadrian's  Gate

The remains of the Celsus library

Ephesus; where  visitors and residents  were a veritable who's who of the ancient world including:  Heraclitus, a pre-socratic philosopher (the expression, "Know thyself", has been attributed to him), Zeuxis a 5th century BC painter,  Agasias, a 2nd century BC sculptor, Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaianus, founder of the Celsus library in the 1st century AD and Manuel Philes a 13th century AD Byzantine poet.  ( I know you never heard of any of them but you should look them up).  Later such luminaries as St John, St. Paul (Bible type people) visited or lived here.  Even  Mary (yes, that Mary) is said to have lived here in her last days

Medusa pediment over a fountain 
(Don't be fooled as countless have...the Afro is made of snakes...so beware)

Ephesus was an important site even as far back as the 8th century BC.   Here, too, is found the remains of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; the Temple of Artemis.  The temple now lies in ruins and rubble with one lone column still standing to mark the spot. 

Antipater of Sidon, who compiled the list of the Seven Wonders, describes the finished temple: " I have set eyes on the wall of lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots, and the statue of Zeus by the Alpheus, and the hanging gardens, and the colossus of the Sun, and the huge labour of the high pyramids, and the vast tomb of Mausolus: but when I saw the house of Artemis that mounted to the clouds, those other marvels lost their brilliancy", and I said, " Lo, apart from Olympus, the Sun never looked on aught so grand".

Statue of Mary  (I have included this as a tribute to Deb's mom.)