Day 7 - Afternoon: Kusadasi & Ephesus

This afternoon's disembark time was 2:30 p.m., with our arrival at Kusadasi. After disembarking, buses were waiting to take us on a short 40 minute ride to Ephesus. Before I start with the pictures, here are some facts about amazing Ephesus:

Ephesus was rebuilt 3 times.
It is the largest open air museum in the world.
Only 20% of Ephesus has been excavated.
John came to Ephesus and preached to the Ephesians after the death of Jesus. It is said that John brought Mary here, where she lived the remainder of her days.


There were some shops before the entrance to Ephesus. I thought the sign on this shop was funny - "Genuine Fake Watches"


The entrance to Ephusus


Another olive tree. The olives on this tree were larger than what I saw on trees in Athens.


Ruins of Ephesus


The Marble Street. The main street of Ephesus that led from the theater to the main part of the city, and was built between the time of Paul and John.

It was HOT here. I didn't take an umbrella with me, thinking if it rained, I would just deal with it. But it would have been nice to have an umbrella to deal with the SUN. That large 2 story ruin with the pillars you can see at the end of the marble street is the library of Celsus.


Closeup of the marble street. They told us the groove in this piece of marble is from chariot wheels.


We saw several amazing mosiac's. This is just one of them.


A relief representing Nike, the goddess of victory, with a wreath in her left hand and a spike in the right.


My friend Debbie was smart & brought her umbrella to Ephesus. There's Kimball (foreground) in the brown shirt.


I'm sure you can all guess what this is. I'll spare you the picture of me sitting here!


Library of Celsus. Built in A.D. 135 by Julius Aguila in memory of his father, Celsus, who was a Roman senator and governor-general of the province of Asia. Here thousands of parchments and papyri were stored, protected from dampness and worms by a double wall, but not from earthquake or war. Estimates of the number of rolls that could be stored in the library vary
from 9,500 to 12,000. Celsus was a lover of books and was given the honor of being buried, not only within the city, but in the vault of his own library among his books.


The library was huge!


Ok, so I thought I'd do something different for my photo. Here I am licking the pillar. It tasted salty. I was kinda grossed out afterwords.


The Theater. This gives you some impression of the elegance of ancient Ephesus in the time of Paul and other early Christians. Originally built during the Hellenistic Age, it was expanded during the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41–54) and was completed during the reign of Trajan (A.D. 98–117). This massive structure measured 495 feet in diameter and seated an estimated 25,000 people. It was cut into Mount Pion between A.D. 41 and 98. The great uproar over Diana of the Ephesians took place here (Acts 19).


I didn't take this picture (I found it on the internet). I think it is an amazing picture that shows what it looks like looking down from the top of the theater. The wide street you can see is the Arcadian Way (Harbor Street)
This was the main street of the city and led from the harbor to the theater. The street was over 100 feet wide and paved with marble slabs. The street was often used for parades and ceremonies, and was flanked on either side by rows of columns 50 feet deep. The street was named in honor of the emperor Arcadius (A.D. 383–408) who enlarged and restored it. Galleries and rows of small shops lined each side of the street. At night the street was lit by lanterns.



After we exited Ephesus, there were more shops before the bus parking lot. Thomas, Kimball and Cameron all bought a camel rider hat. Here they are modeling for me.

Back on the buses for our ride back to Kusadasi. We had several hours to shop before going back to the ship.


This rug shop was next door to a store where we were all shopping and laying down a bunch of Euro's. I was interested in watching the lady weave the rug. As soon as the man noticed that I was interested, he was up & trying to get me into his store to look at rugs.


This is the store that we were all in. Looking back now, I realize how "Turkish" it was. But at the time I guess I had seen so much of the same, it was just another store.



That night back on the ship at the Stars Lounge for Karaoke. The Utah & Tennessee groups singing together.