I am going to give you the background that Rick Steves gives in his book mentioned above because he really does a beautiful job in telling the story.
"At its peak in the first and second centuries A.D., Ephesus was one of the grandest cities of the ancient world, ranking among the four leading centers of the Roman Empire (along with Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome itself). With a staggering quarter of a million residents, Ephesus was the second-biggest city in the empire (after Rome). The Ephesus we see today reflects the many civilizations--Greek, Persian, Roman, and Christian--that passed through Asia Minor (today's Turkey) in the days before the Ottomans. Julius Caesar, Anthony and Cleopatra, St. Paul, and possibly St. John and even the Virgin Mary have all walked these same marble roads.
The area was first settled around 1000 B.C. According to legend, the Oracle of Delphi prophesied that the Greek prince Androklos would found a city at a place revealed to him by "a wild boar and fish." Androklos set sail to the west, and eventually found his way to the beach where the Cayster (a.k.a. Meander) River met the Aegean Sea. While Androklos grilled his dinner at a campfire, a fish fell into the fire, knocked some embers into a bush, and ignited it---flushing out a boar. Androklos tracked the boar into the valley where he would found Ephesus.
The city grew as a seaport and the worship center of the goddess Artemis. By 500 B.C., it was a bustling cultural capital on the Mediterranean. It sported the enormous Temple of Artemis, famous in its day and now in ruins.
Ephesus was part of the sophisticated Ionian world of western Asia Minor that inspired the rise of Golden Age Greece across the pond. The Ephesians spoke Greek (but with an Ionian dialect), produced "Greek" philosophers such as Heraclitus (who said the only constant is change), and popularized the style of Greek columns called Ionic (topped with scroll-like capitals). From time to time over the centuries, more warlike people--Lydians, Persians, Athenians, Alexander the Great, and Romans--overran Ephesus, but everyday life went on unchanged in this cosmopolitan city.
Oddly, the physical location of ancient Ephesus has moved over time. The sandy composition of the valley's soil and the constant movement of alluvial sands have made this an ever-changing landscape. The Meander River (whose circuitous course gave us the word) had a tendency to shift its path over time. When the river's access to the sea silted up in the third century B.C., the Ephesians relocated their city to the valley where the ruins now sit.
It was under Roman rule that Ephesus reached its peak. In A.D. 27, Emperor Augustus made the city the capital of the Roman province of Asia (roughly corresponding to today's Turkish west coast). The harbor at Ephesus bustled with trade (including the slave trade) throughout the vast Roman Empire. By A.D. 100, it had become a city of marble buildings and grand monuments, with an infrastructure that could support hundreds of thousands of toga-ed citizens. The ruins you'll see today date largely from the city's Roman heyday in those first two centuries after Christ.
Ephesus' prominence attracted some of the earliest followers of Christ. St. Paul came to Ephesus (about A.D. 52), where he conducted missionary work and wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians ("Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud"). St. John also may have come to Ephesus (about A.D. 90), having been charged with spreading Christianity in the Roman province of Asia. And even the Virgin Mary supposedly retired to Ephesus (brought by John).
As the Roman Empire fell, so fell Ephesus. In A.D. 263, invading barbarians looted the city, and it never really recovered. Ephesus limped along under the wing of the Byzantine Empire--the Christian empire ruled from Constantinople (today's Istanbul). By the seventh century A.D., that same old problem--silting up of the harbor inlet--finally closed Ephesus' port for good. The city was relocated once again, this time to the area around today's town of Selcuk. The marshy ground bred mosquito-borne malaria that decimated the population. The impressive buildings were scavenged for their conveniently pre-cut stones. Earthquakes further leveled the monuments. Buried over the centuries, Ephesus was forgotten until the 1860s, when a series of British, German, and Austrian archaeologists rediscovered and excavated the site (many of its treasures are now on display in Vienna's Ephesus Museum, and others are in the British Museum in London). Although only 15 percent of the site has been unearthed, it is still one of the largest excavated areas in the world."
Phewf...I hate to copy word for word, but I really love how he describes things in an interesting way. I always read up on the locations we are about to visit so that I can take it all in with a little more knowledge and direction. After reading the background and walking on the incredibly preserved "boulevard" and to think that the people mentioned above have walked the same path. WOW!!!!!!!!
As I mentioned in a previous post our guide was great, but there really is only so much information you can take in at one time. You could probably spend hours and hours here (except not in July or August) and still not really absorb all it has to offer. We were there, maybe, 2 hours...if that, and it was overwhelming. It was overwhelming partly because we had to just keep moving to keep up with our guide and as he was talking we were trying to see everything around us and let us not forget...it was Hot as Hades. As you can see from the picture above there is absolutely no shade whatsoever. The sun just beats down on you for the whole tour. We had to be in long/longer pants because no knees or shoulders were allowed to be exposed in the House of Virgin Mary, though unfortunately that was not enforced. I found it a bit disrespectful, but who am I to turn people away.
So now take a walk with me through ancient Ephesus...
As you arrive in Ephesus you begin with smaller ruins, not unimpressive, but nothing that compared to what was to come (though we didn't know that yet...so we were impressed). This area was the upper gate area and little is left today of what is said to be an open-aired courtyard. A place where shoppers could escape the elements, rain and sun (though there was no escape left for us-haha), catch up with their neighbors, and talk politics. In this area we saw the remains of ancient plumbing.
Turning around from this site of ancient plumbing was the area that would have been the market.
Just behind this market was the Odeon...remember this word. I love it when things make a reappearance and a theme is born. Remember, from the Acropolis, there was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, where musical, not theatrical, performances were held. This Odeon dates from around A.D. 15. It was an indoor theater--once topped with a wooden roof--that seated 1,500. This was a more intimate venue. Some of the lower marble seats are original, but the upper seats were restored in the 1950s. Due to the quick pace of our guide we didn't get to get up close and explore this area, but Rick Steves states that among the original lower marble seats the elegant lion-feet armrests still survive. He also says that to get a sense of how deeply this site was excavated, the theater was once buried up to its tops seats.
Next we headed to what would have been a sort of town hall. It was here where a committee would make decisions about city administration.
Now we are headed down what is known as Sacred Way. The short road leads downhill from the upper gate to Domitian Square.
Even thousands of years ago people needed directions. Along the Sacred Way are two stone pillars with carved directional markers. One, facing the market, is a statue of Hermes (god of merchants); the other, facing a pharmacy, is Asklepios (symbolizing medicine).
Just past these stones we entered Domitian Square. The square was surrounded by important buildings and monuments. The highest surviving arch (below) marks what was a public water fountain.
The centerpiece of the square was the Temple of Domition, dedicated to the notorious first century A.D. Roman emperor. Though little remains today, the temple was large. A bit of the temple facade still stands. You can see below, where the two statues are atop a couple of columns. Domition was the cruel, lunatic emperor who, it is believed, sent John the Prophet into exile to the nearby island of Patmos, where he worked in a rock quarry and wrote the Book of Revelation.
Keepin on truckin...we pass through Hercules Gate. This gate was intentionally too narrow to let chariots pass---marking the transition from pedestrian-only upper Ephesus to the commercial section. Who doesn't love a pedestrian-only zone...especially in Europe (haha).
After passing through Hercules Gate we were standing on Curetes Road, which was the beginning of the commercial zone. This road gives you a small glimpse of the epic scale of Ephesus at its peak. Rick Steves aks us to mentally replace the tourists with toga-clad ancients in order to imagine the Roman metropolis in its heyday. A place with statues, bubbling fountains, arches, and shops lining the streets. Columns supported a covered walkway for pedestrians, while chariots, wagons, and men on horseback traveled the road. Where there would be buildings on either side of the street with shops below and homes above.
As we walked down Curetes Road we came upon Trajan's Fountain on our right. This was a public fountain. During those times the wealthy had indoor plumbing and fountains like this were for everyone else. You can see the remnants of an orb. Beneath the arch of the fountain once stood a statue of Emperor Trajan with his foot on this orb and a phrase "Trajan ruled the world with his right foot". This provides clear evidence that ancient Romans assumed the world was round. You can also see two holes on the lower part of the fountain. It is said that the Ephesians would just uncork the fountain to cool and clean their town.
Crossing the street from Trajan's Fountain you can't help but notice the most incredible mosaic sidewalk. Imagine the shops that would have lined this area...possibly a place for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, or Dior of the Roman Times.
Along these sidewalks is also where the Roman baths were located...sort of an early day "spa". Roman baths tend to be divided into rooms with special purposes: changing cooling-off, warming, hot steam and so on. We have noticed in many of the locations we have traveled, with any Roman background, there are almost always Roman baths. They do still have some in use today in many of the Mediterranean lands.
After popping back on the main street we come upon the Temple of Hadrian. The structure has incredible carvings. I didn't get a picture straight on. I will only explain the carvings that you can see in my picture. You can see carvings of what appear to be eggs and little flowers--these are symbols of fertility.
Well at this point we have walked quite a bit and drank lots and lots of water...so naturally...who isn't ready for some public toilets. Not many Ephesians could afford private bathrooms, so public toilets it was. Oh yes! Can you imagine a public restroom where you did your business with 39 of your closest friends while talking shop. The seating was made out of marble (I can only imagine how cold that might get come December) and this open-aired courtyard once did have a wooden roof. There was a constant stream of water that would "flush" away the waste and then a second stream of clean water for washing. Yikes...no thank you. I also remember our guide saying these were for men only, but can't remember 100%.
As we left the restroom we could see a little road that leads to the right of the main road. This road is only open to visitors on the weekends and was once the road to another "Odeon" or theater and the harbor. The road is made of marble and little survives along this road now.
At the end of the main road stands one of the iconic Roman-ruin images in the world, the Library of Celsus. This structure was incredible. It was the third largest library of the ancient world (behind Alexandria and Pergamon), with upwards of 12,000 volumes. Its namesake, Celsus, was a well-read governor of this province, whose son built the library as a mausoleum in his honor in A.D. 123. The library was restored to what we see today in the 1970s.
With the help of Rick Steves I will describe what you are seeing. The library's facade --two monumental stories tall--features a distinctive grid of columns and recessed niches. Those Corinthian columns (topped with leafy capitals) on the ground floor are 40 feet tall. There were three grand doorways, each matched by windows above. The four statues in the niches represent the traits of Celsus: wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, and valor.
Step inside the small interior, and picture it in it's prime. The walls and floors were once gleaming marble (which covered the restored brick understructure we see today). Light poured in through the big east-facing windows. The niches inside once housed scrolls.
Leaving the Library through a triple arched gate led us into the large marketplace of Ephesus. Similar to our modern day supermarket and shopping mall.
The last sight to see was at the end of our journey...a certain relief for two extremely overheated kids...was the Great Theater. Again, due to time restrictions we didn't get to explore this site at all, but from our vantage point there was no doubt that this theater was HUGE!!!!! This theater held 25,000 spectators and is possibly the largest anywhere. It is said that a Roman theater was typically built to accommodate 10% of its city's population, experts guess that ancient Ephesus had 250,000 residents. The ancient Greeks built the theater in the third century B.C. When the Romans came, they enlarged and modified it for their type of entertainment. The Romans used the theater not only for musical performances (the acoustics are still phenomenal today), but also for gladiator fights.
A quick side note...notice all the pieces laid out behind Chad and I...well these are identified and awaiting reconstruction.
I'll leave you with another excerpt from Rick Steves' book mentioned above about a role this theater played in history.
"This theater played a role in the dramatic story of the Apostle Paul, who lived in Ephesus about A.D. 52-54, While Christianity's message that all are created equal in God's eyes resonated with "the 99 percent," it threatened and offended the society's elites. Paul also ruffled feathers by strongly denouncing the worship of false idols. Remember that the cult of the goddess Artemis was big business in Ephesus. Artemis idol-carvers didn't like Paul's interference one bit. According to the Bible (Acts 29), they stirred up an angry mob and snatched some of Paul's Christian companions. Shouting "Artemis is great," the rabble-rousers dragged the captured Christians to this theater. Paul wanted to save them, but cooler-headed colleagues held him back. Fortunately, the enraged crowd inside calmed down and spared the Christians from harm."
Thanks for strolling through Ancient Ephesus with us. Such an incredible sight. It is hard to believe there are ruins such as these all over Europe. Before we moved to Europe, I was completely oblivious to so many things about history, that it is almost embarrassing. With the rise of many current TV shows depicting life in ancient times you can just picture them in places like Ephesus. Though they lived, thousands and thousands of years ago, it doesn't appear to be much different from how we live our lives today, well minus technological advances, of course. We still need places to buy our groceries and wears. We still need places to pamper ourselves. We still need places where we can come together with our neighbors and talk about local happenings. We still need places to "borrow" a book or 12,000. We still need public restrooms, though thankfully nowadays women are allowed and there are individual stalls. We still need places to enjoy entertainment. We still need places to "stroll" and enjoy our cities. I know this was a lot to take in, but I hope now you can sit back and take a little step back in time.
Stay tuned, because tomorrow we will continue our Hot as Hades Tour at Port 4: Chania, Greece on the island of Crete.
I do agree with you. Ephesus is one of the most important cities of the Roman Empire. I also loved all photos shared by you. Thanks!
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