Ephesus is my favourite place’ said Miriam, ’ you will love it.
And so we did.
After the ruins of Troy and Pergamum, which require a huge imagination to reconstruct city after city, generation after generation, it was such an easy street to wander down the marble paved avenues of Ephesus. Tall columns, with Corinthian, Doric, or Ionic tops, line the way. Terraced town houses, revealing luxurious Roman living, stack up on one side, just like
apartments in Auckland’s hills and gullies. The spacious gymnasium overlooks the public baths and latrines, great places to 
gossip and plot. The boys on our tour could not resist sitting on the latrines, and our guide told us about an Aussie lad last week who pulled down his trousers, and pulled out a newspaper to read! Great photo opportunity there.
The Library of Celsus waits at the bottom of the avenue, its two storeys of stone pillars and carved capitals looking graceful and noble. It was reconstructed by the Romans between 41 and 117 AD. The courtyard out front leads to the open marketplace, or agora (as in agoraphobia) and you can still see the area for each individual stall or shop. A little further on, the amphitheatre sited perfectly for the sun to warm the 30000 stone seats lies ready for the next performance. It is still used today. So much of Ephesus has been reconstructed that it is possible to imagine St Paul coming to preach there, and people going about their daily life.
The ubiquitous cats and stray dogs which lie around add a level of reality to the whole city, tucked so neatly into the folds of the hills.
We were reminded of Androcles in 600BC, who chose the site, when the sea came up to the city; Alexander the Great who arrived in 334BC, the Romans who saw the city grow to 250,000,and then the Christians who settled there. St John and the Virgin Mary, known as Mother Mary to the Muslims, supposedly lived there, and St Paul also lived there for three years, writing his most profound of his epistles, to the Ephesians.
Most unusually, there was no Moslem/Turkish occupation of Ephesus. Why? Malaria struck the town in 6th century AD. It was finally abandoned and the stones used by the emperor Justinian to build a new city on the other side of the mountain.
The sun was setting over the Aegean Sea as we arrived at Kusadasi. A bonus of off season travel is staying in hotels which would be out of our price range in summer. Marble stairways, pool, gym, live music, superb food, luxury cruise ship moored nearby, a glass of Efes (Ephesus)beer at sunset- this is the life.
And so we did.
After the ruins of Troy and Pergamum, which require a huge imagination to reconstruct city after city, generation after generation, it was such an easy street to wander down the marble paved avenues of Ephesus. Tall columns, with Corinthian, Doric, or Ionic tops, line the way. Terraced town houses, revealing luxurious Roman living, stack up on one side, just like
apartments in Auckland’s hills and gullies. The spacious gymnasium overlooks the public baths and latrines, great places to 
gossip and plot. The boys on our tour could not resist sitting on the latrines, and our guide told us about an Aussie lad last week who pulled down his trousers, and pulled out a newspaper to read! Great photo opportunity there.The Library of Celsus waits at the bottom of the avenue, its two storeys of stone pillars and carved capitals looking graceful and noble. It was reconstructed by the Romans between 41 and 117 AD. The courtyard out front leads to the open marketplace, or agora (as in agoraphobia) and you can still see the area for each individual stall or shop. A little further on, the amphitheatre sited perfectly for the sun to warm the 30000 stone seats lies ready for the next performance. It is still used today. So much of Ephesus has been reconstructed that it is possible to imagine St Paul coming to preach there, and people going about their daily life.
The ubiquitous cats and stray dogs which lie around add a level of reality to the whole city, tucked so neatly into the folds of the hills.
We were reminded of Androcles in 600BC, who chose the site, when the sea came up to the city; Alexander the Great who arrived in 334BC, the Romans who saw the city grow to 250,000,and then the Christians who settled there. St John and the Virgin Mary, known as Mother Mary to the Muslims, supposedly lived there, and St Paul also lived there for three years, writing his most profound of his epistles, to the Ephesians.
Most unusually, there was no Moslem/Turkish occupation of Ephesus. Why? Malaria struck the town in 6th century AD. It was finally abandoned and the stones used by the emperor Justinian to build a new city on the other side of the mountain.
The sun was setting over the Aegean Sea as we arrived at Kusadasi. A bonus of off season travel is staying in hotels which would be out of our price range in summer. Marble stairways, pool, gym, live music, superb food, luxury cruise ship moored nearby, a glass of Efes (Ephesus)beer at sunset- this is the life.
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