Once we’d got into Turkey (with all the rubber-stamping and bureaucracy that entails) we decided that Ephesus was one of the places we absolutely needed to see.
We weren’t disappointed.
From the road, you see the amphitheatre cut into the side of the hill – and it looks impressive. But, I wonder how many people take a picture from there, thinking they’ve seen it, and never go in.
Although you have to pay to go into the archaeological site, it’s worth every penny.
The largest amphitheatre outside Rome, it seated 25,000. Originally built in 300 BC, it was extended to it’s current scale around 100-200AD.
The amphitheatre is incredible. We sat for an hour about 2/3 of the way up the steps and listened to people talking on the stage floor – the acoustics are tremendous.
The channel that runs around the front of the stage was originally filled with water that was fed from the river over 2 miles away.
Everything happened on the floor of the auditorium: from plays to Roman worship; from Gladiatorial contests to recreated sea battles (when they would flood the stage with a sophisticated water management system); from City proclamations to the (then) blasphemous story-telling by St Paul himself on his way to Rome as he tried to convert the Romans to Christianity.
A truly amazing atmosphere.
However, it’s not just an amphitheatre. The City grew to as large as 300,000 people by 250AD, a huge population in those days. It housed everyone from Emperors and wealthy merchants, to the poorest of traders exchanging goods between Asia and Europe.
Such a wealthy City that the town centre covered over 1,000 acres – even the main thoroughfares were covered in mosaics.
We saw Roman colonnades and Greek temple ruins; fields littered with stunning stonework in the process of being restored; simple, cave-dug town dwellings; ornate monuments put up to honour Alexander the Great & a multitude of Roman heroes; and (the hight of sophisticated society) a public latrine where you could pass the time of day with other noblemen while you had a crap.
All remarkable.
However, none of them really compared to the City Library building, built around 200AD, where the City’s most valuable documents and parchments were kept in a multitude of niches carved into the walls. Little remains of the internal structure now, but the facade is stunning.
WOW.
We’ve uploaded the pictures in fairly large scale, so click on a couple of them to see the quality of stonework and the detail in the carvings. Unfortunately, the pictures can’t possibly do it justice.
Everyone who goes to Turkey on holiday is offered a day trip to Ephesus by their hotel. I can understand why. You’d be mad to miss it.
