Please write to either
windlechristine@gmail.com or windle.keith@gmail.com
We set off just after 7.30, with Jim driving and very little traffic. Umit had seen us off. She had been great company and very kind to us, particularly in helping us to understand the Turkish lifestyle more. We hope she makes it to Australia on her travels and comes to visit us. For those of us in the car, the mood was light and not unlike how you feel when you are all packed up and going on a school camp.
The countryside continued to be a delight, with the enormous Lake Bafa spreading out between the mountains like a shimmering cloth.
The trip took 2 and ¾ hours, and included one stop for a drink and a break. We drove down the road to Effesus and turned into the parking area at the first gate. Before we had organised our day packs, an official looking older man with a tag of some kind around his neck approached Jim. He explained that there was no charge for parking here and that a mini-bus, organised by the government as a free service to tourists, would take us to the gate at the other end of Effesus. We could stroll through the site in an hour and arrive back at the car. It sounded all very considerate and sensible of the government, so we agreed to that arrangement. The man went on to explain that, in return for the government providing free transport, tourists were asked to visit one of two craft schools in the area where local people were being taught traditional crafts. There was no obligation to buy anything. Would we like to visit leather crafts or the handicraft school? This was clever because instead of asking ourselves why the government would expect tourists to visit any craft schools, we asked ourselves, "Leather or general crafts?" Jim wanted leather and I wanted general crafts so we signed up for both. Strangely there was a mini-bus ready to leave that very minute and we were the only passengers on it. I was still feeling warm towards the government and thinking how they were trying to encourage and support local artisans when we arrived at an expensive looking leather retail outlet. Three suited men appeared and ushered us in, offering tea. The senior one gave us a five minute talk on the virtues of their leather products. It turns out they supply to famous brand names like Gucci. The leather coat they were promoting to me was 800 Euros ($Aus 1200) and they said that I could have it for half price. It was fairly awkward but I said that I was not in a position to buy anything. So did Keith and Jim.
We made our exit and debated telling our driver to skip the general craft school. However, the fact that he spoke no English and we spoke no Turkish and we were proceeding at speed meant that we were greeted by suited salesmen from the craft school before any action was taken. This time at least there was a school of a sort. Girls from local villages come into the carpet emporium and are taught traditional skills of carpet making for an hour a day over a month. 
At the end of that time, if they are interested, the emporium supplies them with a loom and the raw materials and they can make carpets at home, selling them through the shop. We saw silk carpets, wool carpets and spinning of silk from silk worm cocoons and it was very interesting. It takes five months to make a smallish silk carpet with double knots.Next we were ushered into a display room where the walls were rich with carpets. In my head I chose one - just an impossible dream. The salesman knew that we would not be buying but he went through his spiel and said he enjoyed showing the carpets anyway. Soon cruise ships would be bringing bus loads of potential buyers and after the tourist season he would be off on his three months of annual travels. His English was impeccable. Two assistants rolled the carpets out with flair. The first one was $25,000 US, the next cheaper at $20,000. We saw carpets in different regional styles and of various materials. Some looked dark one way and lighter the other. There was no question of their beauty but we couldn’t buy any. Graciously our salesman bade us farewell. We returned to our mini-bus and journeyed on to the second gate of Effesus.
After running the gauntlet of the tourist stall owners, we entered the site and set off, equipped with two audio guides. To give a blow by blow description of this marvellous Roman era city would run to pages and pages. Instead, I will give an overview and a few highlights, and encourage everyone to read about it or, better still, visit one day.Ephesus was settled as a harbour city in antiquity but silting of the Kucuk Menderes River and the river flats meant that the harbour had moved by the Hellenistic period, again by the Roman period and is in a different position today. The city of Ephessus was relocated several times, was destroyed by earthquakes and attacks and was rebuilt in different eras and places. It had a chequered history and was a bit of a pawn like Rhodes, with its fate often dependent on the result of alliances and outcomes of battles it had not initiated. One ruler had no direct heirs so he willed the city to the Roman Empire. In 27 BC, Emperor Augustus made Ephesus the capital of the Western part of Asia Minor. In the year 100, its population was over 400,000.
We visited the ruins of the Roman city so we looked out at the sea which was now far away. In Roman times the city was a booming place thronging with international tourists, rich trade of high end luxury goods, philosophers, superb athletes, high officials and a broader populace who lived beyond the city centre. The streets were superbly engineered with drainage and sewers under the marble paving. Hot and cold running water was supplied to the wealthy in their houses while the rest of the people had convenient public fountains for their use. A gladiator school and gymnasiums (in the sense Australians use the word) had swimming pools and practice fields attached.
24,000 people could attend the theatre where some sports events were held. On some days there would be animal hunts in the mornings followed by the public killing of criminals and prisoners, and a relaxing gladiatorial battle to the death in the afternoon. The theatre could still hold a crowd, and we ate our lunch and observed tour groups being harangued there. A small cat worked the tourist lunchers looking for scraps. I imagined St Paul, veteran of public speaking and promotion of Christianity, telling an enormous crowd of Artemis worshippers that paganism was no good and that they should switch to Christianity. The crowd went crazy and it took considerable time and skill on the part of a town official to pacify the crowd which was chanting ‘Artemis is great!’ and other less printable slogans. St Paul was bustled out of town. Years later, Christianity held sway here, after many people had suffered for their faith and when it was officially sanctioned by Emperors. 
Highlights -So much remains that it is easy to imagine the life of a busy and prosperous city. There is evidence everywhere of the high level of engineering skills and the provision for public life and ceremonies on a grand scale.
Two Austrians financed the restoration of the library of Celsus, which was a built as a memorial but also housed many scrolls so it had temperature control wall construction. The statues of women representing Science, Virtue, Intelligence and Fate are in place on the façade and the carved stone work is detailed and complex.
Houses for wealthy residents had indoor toilets and bathrooms but there as a public toilet in good condition where citizens would have sat hip to hip. Like everything else it was on the grand scale - about 40 people could go at once and it had a decorative courtyard and pool in the middle. Some archaeologists believe that such the number of toilets indicates a meeting room of some kind would have been there but maybe the 24,000 at the theatre rushed down there at interval.The terrace house is a complex of six individual but joined houses on three levels against a hillside. The excavation site has an opaque roof over it and a trail of glass floored walk ways that enables you to look into the rooms at different levels. The rooms open off courtyards that would have been open, admitting light and fresh air. The lavish style of frescoes, mosaics on the floor, marble on many walls, evidence of baths and toilets and complex in wall drainage, and the general size and scope of the buildings suited the lifestyle and pocket of high level officials and their families. It enabled us to feel as if we had stepped into someone’s home and maybe they would return in a moment.
Only 25% of the site has been excavated so you can look at the hills and see mounds and ridges that are just begging to be explored.After a blue skied, no-rush stroll through the city, which had fully lived up to expectations, we drove up the mountain to the Mary House. This is a small house which was restored after a German nun had visions that this was where Mary, the mother of Jesus, lived out her final days. The water and the ashes from the fire there are said to have curative powers, with miracle cures occurring after people have visited. With only a short time before closing time, entrance fees for the two of us of 20 lira ($AD17), then car parking fee on top of that, Jim having no interest in it and an entry that reeked of commercialism and handling of mass tourists, we decided not to go then and to find out more about it.
Instead we drove to the free site of the Seven Sleepers.
Seven young men and their dog sought refuge in a tomb at a time of Christian persecution. 200 years later they reappeared, (awaking or were resurrected) and found that their contemporaries had all died. This led to the spot where they had been becoming a holy burial spot with churches and a thousand tombs being hewn into the rock of the mountain. Free, rising behind peach orchards and away from any tourist hub bub, it had a special feel befitting the story. A fig tree was covered in tied on strips of cloth and plastic from visitors who believe that a wish made in this spot will be granted.
We stayed in the charming little town of Selcuk (Sell chook) nearby, at the Hotel Urkmez, run by two very friendly and helpful brothers. We shared a drink with Jim before he left to drive back to Turkutreis. He had been a very friendly and generous host and we had enjoyed his company and enthusiasm on our outings together. We wished him well, invited him to Australia and then had a rare meal in a café.
Nike often suffers from a wardrobe malfunction in ancient sculptures.
This tourist is busy writıng some graffitı on the wall of an ancient portico at Ephesus.
This large covered section of the site looks dull and uninvitıng but it contained some wonderful excavations and reconstructions of the wealthy people's houses.
No comments:
Post a Comment