We had complimentary breakfast at our hotel's terrace that overlooks the gorgeous Marina and then took a bus to Ephesus. Ephesus are ruins of an ancient city from the Roman Empire that are a short drive away from Kusadasi and the main tourist attraction of the small resort town. We hired a taxi that dropped us off at one entrance of Ephesus and we walked our way through the ancient city to the other side where the taxi was waiting for us.
Walking through the ruins of an ancient city is a very different experience from going to a museum since you are able to marvel at how grand the city must have been in its heyday. The city is believed to be the site where the Gospel of John might have been written. We walked on the cobblestone pathway that was the main street of the city in ancient times. On both sides, we saw the remains of several temples and residences. We also saw the remains of public toilets - in those days, only the royal family had the luxury of private toilets and everyone else used the public facility. The Library of Celsus is the second most impressive structure in the ancient city of Ephesus. The outer facade has been reconstructed from its original stone blocks and is quite imposing. The entrance is quite exaggerated and when you go inside, the area of the actual library is quite small. The library was built from the donations of a Roman Senator by the name of Celsus who was then buried under the library.
After the library, we continued our walk and made our way to the most impressive structure of Ephesus - the Grand Theater. It is an outdoor theater and one of the biggest in the ancient world with a seating capacity of over 20,000. The Romans were the inventors of the auditorium style seating and apart from ensuring that every attendee's view of the center stage is unobstructed, this style also ensures the best possible acoustics. We made our way to the top of the seating rows to get a view of the stage and that's when a child with one tourist family started singing and we could hear him perfectly clearly all the way back despite being in open air! If the engineering feats of this theater are incredible, the view that you get from the top is even more impressive. You see the river (that is about a one km walk down from the theater) and the hills that surround the city. After that, we continued walking and saw a graveyard of gladiators and then made our way out of this impressive city.
Then we saw the supposedly last resting place of Mary, mother of Jesus. We also saw the remains of the Roman Temple of Artemis. After that we got back to our hotel and after freshening up, walked around the city of Kusadasi to an island called the Pigeon Island. On our way back, we did some shopping and then had dinner at our hotel's restaurant. Again, very nice food but this time with even better presentation as compared to last night's dinner. We just finished packing and now are going to bed for a few hours before we have to wake up at 3 am to catch our next flight to Cappadocia.
Walking through the ruins of an ancient city is a very different experience from going to a museum since you are able to marvel at how grand the city must have been in its heyday. The city is believed to be the site where the Gospel of John might have been written. We walked on the cobblestone pathway that was the main street of the city in ancient times. On both sides, we saw the remains of several temples and residences. We also saw the remains of public toilets - in those days, only the royal family had the luxury of private toilets and everyone else used the public facility. The Library of Celsus is the second most impressive structure in the ancient city of Ephesus. The outer facade has been reconstructed from its original stone blocks and is quite imposing. The entrance is quite exaggerated and when you go inside, the area of the actual library is quite small. The library was built from the donations of a Roman Senator by the name of Celsus who was then buried under the library.
After the library, we continued our walk and made our way to the most impressive structure of Ephesus - the Grand Theater. It is an outdoor theater and one of the biggest in the ancient world with a seating capacity of over 20,000. The Romans were the inventors of the auditorium style seating and apart from ensuring that every attendee's view of the center stage is unobstructed, this style also ensures the best possible acoustics. We made our way to the top of the seating rows to get a view of the stage and that's when a child with one tourist family started singing and we could hear him perfectly clearly all the way back despite being in open air! If the engineering feats of this theater are incredible, the view that you get from the top is even more impressive. You see the river (that is about a one km walk down from the theater) and the hills that surround the city. After that, we continued walking and saw a graveyard of gladiators and then made our way out of this impressive city.
Then we saw the supposedly last resting place of Mary, mother of Jesus. We also saw the remains of the Roman Temple of Artemis. After that we got back to our hotel and after freshening up, walked around the city of Kusadasi to an island called the Pigeon Island. On our way back, we did some shopping and then had dinner at our hotel's restaurant. Again, very nice food but this time with even better presentation as compared to last night's dinner. We just finished packing and now are going to bed for a few hours before we have to wake up at 3 am to catch our next flight to Cappadocia.
No comments:
Post a Comment