Ancient Ephesus

July 25

Today we arrived at Kusadasi, Turkey, a popular vacation spot for many Europeans with many visiting vacation homes in the area.  One of the main attractions in the region is a variety of ancient ruins including the “port” city of Ephesus which we visited on a private tour. 

Until the river silted up the city of Ephesus was an economic power house in the region with over 250,000 residents at its peak.  The city boasted elaborate water and sewage systems, public baths, theatres, amphitheatres, a library holding over 12,000 scrolls and many other significant features.  Several times during it’s history it was devastated by earthquakes but each time it recovered and was rebuilt.  Both Greek and Roman influences mark the building styles and public artwork with many inscriptions in either the Greek Cyrillic alphabet or the Roman Latin alphabet.  Part of the current site is the subject of an archaeological effort to piece together and reconstruct “Terrace” houses.  These living quarters were built on various levels up the hillsides and intricate mosaic floors and artwork on the walls are very well preserved considering the length of time they have been there. The 25,000 seat amphitheatre is still used today for a variety of classical, opera, and rock/pop concerts.

In the evening we departed for Mykonos and after dinner we watched the “hot glass” show up on deck 15 adjacent the “lawn club”.  This is a great feature of the ship with glass blowing artists displaying their craft from start to finish.  As they build up examples of their work they hold raffles to give the pieces away and we won an interesting red vase with a flower spiralling up the outside....

The girls were most animated during the visit to ancient Ephesus when they came across a litter of kittens hidden under the bushes.  We’ve run across lots of cats in Turkey and this time of year must be “kitten season”.  There are also plenty of hot dogs always splayed out sleeping on the cool ground; one could almost think it is a particular breed unique to this region of the world and the regulations state they must install them at all the tourist sites.....