The excavations we saw are known as Ephesus 3 and they represent only 17% of the actual city size and opulent magnitude...which in the 2nd century-AD of the Roman Empire was home to over 250,000 citizens...making it then the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. Firstly was Rome of course, secondly was Alexandria, and thirdly was Antioch....Ephesus replaced Pergamum as the provincial capital in 1C-AD.
A bit of interesting history...Ephesus has been claimed as possibly the greatest Greco-Roman sites in the world and represents one of the best preserved examples of Roman architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is the most developed site in Turkey with well over 3 million visitors annually and major excavations began in 1862 and are ongoing.
Ephesus was located on the Aegean coast at the mouth of the Cayster River, and continued as a thriving port city of commerce until AD1244....today the site is over 3 miles inland.
Ephesus was founded by the Ionian Greeks in the 11th century BC and flourished under Roman rule. The Greeks apparently replaced the fertility goddess of the Anatolian with their goddess Artemis, and built a beautiful temple in her honor but of course in 7th century BC the Kimmers attacked and destroyed the temple only to be rebuilt once again by the Lydian king in 560-BC.
Ephesus was known thoughout the ancient world as the 'temple keeper' and thousands made pilgrimages each spring for the Artemesia Festival as the Jews would make pilgrimages to Jerusalem for their feasts. Ephesus was also renowned as a center for magical pratices and the worship of Artemis was a major opponent to early Christianity. During the Romans arrival the famous temple became that of the goddess Diana and was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world....until the Goths detroyed the temple once again in AD-262.
Ephesus has a very rich Christian history and the presence of Jews is well documented...Paul visited Ephesus at least 3 times and during his third visit he established the Ephesian church and stayed 3 years. Of course we know Paul was imprisoned often by the Romans and one such time it was forced by a nasty Ephesian silversmith named Demetrius, who caused a riot that had Paul leave the city and send his brother in faith Timothy. While in prison Paul of course wrote his inspired letters to the Ephesian church and those in Corinth and Galatia and today form the essense of the Christian faith.
Walking down the massive marble laid streets to the beautiful Celsus library and the massive great theatre which seated 22,000 was quite a surreal moment, as this was the very streets that history declares were walked by Cleopatra, Mark Antony and of course Paul the Apostle.
The great theatre built into the west side of Mt Pion in Greek style would of had a spectacular harbour view and the seating capacity we learned from viewing many other Roman and Greek theatres was often designed to be about 10% of the city population...whcih would have worked for Ephesus in the second century. Renovations to the theatre began in AD-40 and took over 70 years so apparently Paul would have seen the theatre under construction during his Ephesus visits.
While I climbed to the near top of the great theatre, my fellow touring friend stood on the bottom platform and as it was just us, we tested the sound...Ray spoke in his normal voice and then got softer each time until just above a whisper and I could hear him perfectly from the seagull seats...wow what incredidble acoustics!
From the ancient theatre gymnasiums, bathhouses, huge state agora, amazing terrace homes which were decorated with frescoes and resembled our condo's of today, Roman latrines, the many massive gates, temples, churches, monuments, cemetary, wells...the list goes on and on of items to admire in awe.
Of course much more to write and recall about this special 4 hour tour to 7:30-pm closing at Ephesus...but at the risk of being too exhaustive will have to visit again and read the many books on this ancient city?
I have over 200 photo's of this ancient site and where does one begin to share how this 4 hour guided tour was to experience personally, which was only a tiny glimpse of the lifestyle at that remarkable time in ancient history.
Ongoing excavations and exhaustive restoration will provide a more complete and informed look with any further visits to Ephesus and with over 200 of my own pics and this bit of blogging...I should bring the moments back to remembrance...unless senility steals some away? lol
I have also included a few pics of our brief visit and interesting fashion show at Emelda's Leather which is a local elite leather garment factory, and of my walking tour at St John the Apostle's Basilica.
We have a long drive back north today and along the coast to tour ancient Troy and overnight in the exciting seaside city of Canakkale...
What a great opportunity Brian. Thank you for the great descriptions. You will need to come home and have a REST. All of this and then the work of blogging it. Way to go. Such interesting history. Our western "buildings" will never last the test of time.
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