Ephesus

Today we visited Kusadasi, Turkey. We actually visited the ancient ruins of Ephesus. They are remarkably well preserved and quite extensive. We hired a tour guide and driver for today as we had not been there and it was recommended to get a guide.

they had plumbing, running water and toilets (as shown here)

- library of Celsus

Our guide's name was Haluk and was very good. We first visited Ephesus itself. Very impressive, especially the theater. It holds 25000 people! The library was also fairly complete.

- theater from the top row

From there, we went by the ruins of the temple of artemis. When built, this was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Now, the only thing remaining is one lone column.

We then visited the Basilica of St John. Purportedly, the Apostle John was buried here when he died. The church was fairly impressive, but was desrtoyed by earthquake in the 1300s.

- reported gravesite for the Apostle John

The last place we visited was the House of the Virgin Mary. Supposedly, this is where she moved after Jesus' death.

- they had a fire recently in the area. the fire burnt everywhere around the House of the Virgin Mary, but not the house itself.

We then went back to Kusadasi and saw some pottery and carpets being made. Large carpets will take years to create! Consequently, they cost over 8000 to buy--needless to say, we didn't buy any.

We bought a few items in the bazaar and went back to the ship.

- another great sign in the shopping area for Fake Watches

Our last day was a good one. We leave the ship tomorrow morning in Athens and spend the day there.

More to come later.

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