Ephesus

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sat 8 Aug 2009 07:54
Thursday 6th August

Alarm went off at 6.00 am so we could do our cultural tour before the sun
really got going again today.

Walked into town and up to the dolmus station, which is a grand term for a
roundabout with mini-buses rushing round it.

However easy it is to mock this system, the fact remains that it is actually
very quick, easy and ridiculously cheap. (Sound like a workable public
transport model?)

15 minute wait before we were off heading for Ephesus by way of some very
rural roads. We were dropped off near one of the entrances and succumbed to
the offer of a taxi ride round to the south entrance, some 3 km away.

Even if you are not a keen 'rubble gazer' the one site you have to see is
Ephesus. The history is far too complex to go into here but briefly it was
already prospering by the 6th century BC. Alexander the Great arrived in 334
BC and offered to pay for the grand temple that was under construction. Its
golden era belongs to the Romans when it was made capital of Asia Minor and
at this time it had over 250,000 inhabitants. St Paul arrived in AD 53 and
founded a Christian church there. The demise of this great city was due
entirely to the river silting up and the sea retreating across the plain
leaving it several miles from the nearest ship.

What remains though is staggering and mainly dates from the Roman era. The
theatre is awesome, seating 24,000 people and it is still used every spring
for a festival.

We strolled through the vast site and took endless photos (mercifully only a
few will appear on the website!) and ended up walking back down to the main
road, where we saw the small lay-by which is the 'official' pick up point
for the dolmus that runs between Kusadasi and Selcuk. 5 minutes later we
were whizzing back down the lanes and back to Kusadasi where we walked down
to the cruise terminal to visit the shops and enjoy a coffee on the sea
front.

The afternoon saw us back at our chores, taking advantage of the Wi-Fi,
electricity and water on tap.