Ephesus, Artemis and the Virgin Mary

Moving on from Izmir and the ruins of Smyrna we travelled on to Kusadasi and the great city of Ephesus or what’s left of it. Straight away at the carpark we see honest stallholders where they even sell “Genuine Fake Watches”.

Once inside the gate we realised this place was huge. In fact on this 36 degree day and still suffering the lingering effects of a tummy bug we didn’t stand a hope of seeing it all but what we did see was breathtaking. If you can read the map in the 2^nd photo we only got as far as number 8, the huge amphitheatre. It would be difficult for me to explain every photo so what I have tried to do is to precede any features with an interpretive sign (not that they are easily read). In the meantime I can give you some of the Ephesus story.

It is not certain who first founded Ephesus however the first information about it comes from 2000 BC. It lies in Western Anatolia and was once the capital of 500 Anatolian towns at the time in which St John lived and died (more on him shortly). With a population of 250,000 people entertainments were held every April in honor of Artemis (the former mother goddess Kybele) when over 1 million people made up the audience to watch sportsmen, musicians and theatre players. Travellers came from as far away as Jerusalem and Athens to watch these spectacle

I mentioned St John earlier. Well according to the catholic scriptures when Christ died he asked St John to care for his mother, The Virgin Mary. With persecution by the Romans and the desire to spread Christianity the (known) world was divided up amongst the Apostles and St John drew the short straw for Asia Minor. St John dutifully headed off to Anotalyia and it is presumed that he bought Mary with him. It is this tale which drew us to Ephesus House of the Virgin Mary where Christ’s mother lived her remaining life. I have included a photo of a sign recording the religious and scientific facts supporting this story.

Also mentioned earlier in this post was Artemis, the Mother Goddess. Shockingly we found the ruins of the Temple of Artemis in a field by the side of the main highway with barely a sign to acknowledge its’ existence. What makes this more surprising is that this temple was once known as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Consequently it displays little of its former glory and we were allowed unfettered access to the pillars and blocks laying about in the grass. You may also notice a photo of a gray block of stone. I put this in as an example of the work that went in to making the building blocks that go into erecting these temples and structures that we are visiting. Each mark on this stone is the chisel cut of a craftsman of the day labouring by hand to feed his family.

Finally the last few photos are of the Kusadasi region. This area is a ‘summer playground’ for the Turkish people (and the occassional Aussie). Resorts and theme parks abound and did I mention the food was OK too?