The welcoming in Turkey, the port terminal was very nice.
Being in Kenya for the last 6 months has shown me some countries do not support the use of any roadsigns. It was so nice seeing nice roads with signage that I had to take a picture of it. The small reminder of civilization was very comforting. Of course after renting the car, we found that much of the city roads were being repaired and I had to use dead reckoning to get us back towards the roads to the ruins. Also, the fuel tank is empty, so we stopped to fill’er up…. not knowing the exchange rate blew us away, filling the tank in a Ford Focus set us back over $100.
This is the gymnasium in Ephasus, which is now used for a storage yard for the pieces of marble. A 2000 year old sadistic jigsaw puzzle.
This is the entrance road from the old harbor entrance. Canals were dug inland to this city and a manmade harbor created to move goods directly to this city. The columns were used to suspended roofs and fabric over the road so that it was shaded.
Royal Caribbean tour groups were given a special little show about Roman era life, we just tagged onto the group and were able to watch the show. It reenacted gladiators, emperor’s entourage, market setting, and other facets of the ancient city.
The precision of the straight lines on this carved marble amazed me, it almost looked like it was machined it was so exact.
The Great Theater seated thousands, with VIP boxes up close and an intricate stage. Renovations were being made to the facility with this boom crane covering about half the worksite.
A reassembled arch, completely free standing. I tried to explain the theory of an arch to my Kenyan driver when I returned to work, but he thinks I am lying to him and there is glue or rebar holding it together.
The Celsus Library, its front entrance remains impressive even two millennia later. Plaques inside had artists renditions of what it used to look like and how manuscripts were stored inside.
This was amazing, a flushable toilet system. The carved marble seats were over a sloped trough that could be flushed with water provided from the terra cotta piping system that ran throughout the city. The sewage all went to collection ponds at the lower end of the city. I find it amazing that this technology existed over 2000 years ago in the Roman Empire and only 2% of schools in Kenya have running water.
Some of the carvings that have been found and saved.
The upper portion of the main road in Ephesus. The city is built on a hill, and many of the more senior of the tourist crowds would pay extra for a bus to take you to the top so it was a downhill walk. We hiked the entire city, plus exploring most of the side streets and ruins.
There was a smaller theater that was covered, this was for readings and shows/performances.
Columns on the upper road that were used to cover the main road, who would want to walk in that hot Turkish sun.
Some of the reassembled statues, with a building thunderhead in the background.
Reassembled statue, after seeing hundreds, we determined that hands and heads were easily lost since only a handful had either.
The main road from a good vantage point, I was probably not supposed to climb up there. The parking lot of the tourist center was full of about 120 buses from the two cruise ships and other tour groups.
Another headless/handless statue.
A trio of columns that used to be part of the Love House structure. One of the main houses in the center of the city, even with that name, it was not the brothel.
Another view of the Celsus Library.
Wen by the columns in the Love House.
A freestanding arch in the ruins of the Love House.
After leaving Ephesus, we drove around for some lunch and other ruins. This was the Castle of St John, an impressive fortress overlooking the open valley.
This is the caves that are part of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, a story of 7 Christian youths that hid in the caves to avoid the Roman prosecution of the Christians.
This is the house of the Virgin Mary; the road to this site was a winding road up the mountain that was a blast in the sporty Focus. Unfortunately I was stuck behind a bus going down, until the bus cut a switchback too close and the side crushed in from the guardrail when I finally had a chance to drop a gear and get past the bus without driving over the torn off cargo doors and sheet metal.
After seeing all the ruins, we drove along the coast for about an hour each direction. We found a road out to the beach and did some beach driving in our rental car. We put our feet into the water and discovered it was not the warm Mediterranean water we expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment