Kusadasi

 Oct 6, 2021

Not only are we in Turkey, we’re on the Asian continent. Turkey is a peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea (north), the Aegean Sea (west), and the Mediterranean (south). Their neighbors are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Georgia, and Armenia. Turkey has only a small area in Western Istanbul (former Constantinople) that is on the European continent. The Eastern part is on the Asian continent. The Dardanelles is the narrow passage of waterway that links the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea. Turkey is a Muslim country but it is also secular. The Turkish (at least the western ones) live in harmony with all others and put no rules on their Muslim population. Their national drink is an alcoholic one, Raki, which is a stronger version of Ouzo. 🥴 Woman are free and respected. They can wear what they want. They recently had a woman prime minister. First impressions were very positive because our cruise is the 1st cruise to come into Kusadasi in 2 years! The bus drivers and tour guides are literally giddy. The merchants are super aggressive!! Not fun! 

Ephesus is the prime attraction! It’s a bucket list kind of place. A good thing about being the only cruise ship in town, half full, is that Ephesus was not crowded. At its heyday, it was a very rich city with 250,000 inhabitants. This area has been inhabited since the 10th century BC. The hitites, the ottomans, the romans, the byzantines, the Greeks, and the Turks have all reigned in this area. The God they worshipped was Artemis and a statue and temple for her was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world only 4 miles from here.  St Paul came to Ephesus on his 2nd missionary journey and spoke at the stadium to 25,000 attendees about Jesus Christ. The silver merchants, who sold small silver replicas of Artemis, who the residents of Ephesus worshipped, became nervous about their livelihood and called bullshit on everything the Apostle Paul was saying. They claimed Paul was lying and they threw him in jail in Ephesus. He was imprisoned for two years. While imprisoned, he wrote letters to the Ephesians, to Corinthians and to the Thessalonians. Chapter 17 of the Ephesians describes his time here. The Virgin Mary is said to have lived out her life in Ephesus. We didn’t see that location, unfortunately. 

A symbol representing IX(theta)Y(sigma) which means “Christ, son of God, Savior”. If you write all the letters on top of each other, you get this. 

Original stones laid over 2000 years ago

The Harbor Road (the harbor is no longer due to silt and  earthquakes). Cleopatra also walked on the road so after that they changed the name to Cleopatra road.

A view of the former Aegean Sea on a stroll through town.

Terra cotta water pipes with male/female ends. Cemented together with egg whites, lime and cotton. 

The Ephesus library and entry to the agora (large area for commerce). 

Ephesus has many cats!

A relief of Nike

The end of the road for chariots and past where the road narrowed was where the government buildings were. 

A backgammon type game carved into the steps of a shop.

A carved piece of marble showing the right wins by a slave in the Greco-Roman theater. He was killed in the ninth. This piece was recycled during one of the “change of rulers” and used as building material.

In the bazaar at the lower gate. I thought that was funny

If your arms reach both columns, you make a wish.

The stadium where wrestling and gladiator games were held

A roundabout!

The Turkish flag at the lower gate

The hospital

The Kusadasi harbor

The toilets where men conducted business (in more ways than one)

A walkway notice directing to the brothel. It says, on the left, women will …

Ionia, Doric, and Corinthian columns all exist here - showing the different sectors that have existed here.

This evening, we watched a billy Chrystal movie .