Monday, May 10, 2010

EPHESUS' MASTERPIECES

EPHESUS - JULY 2009


"HADRIAN'S TEMPLE - Built before 138 A.D by P. Quintilius and dedicated to one of the Five Good Emperors (Hadrian, who came to visit the city from Athens in 128 A.D), it is one of the best preserved structures on Curettes Street. The façade has four Corinthian columns (two square and two round) supporting a curved arch, with a relief of Tyche, goddess of victory"


"HADRIAN'S TEMPLE - Inside the temple above the door, Medusa stands with ornaments of acanthus leaves. On both sides there are friezes depicting the story of the foundation of Ephesus"


"CURETTES STREET - Full of tourist heading to the most fabulous of the (reconstructed) ruins - Celsus' Library. Built in 117 A.D. by Celsus’ son, Gaius Julius Aquila, to honour his father Gaius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, the governor of the province of Asia and a wealthy local citizen, it is one of the most beautiful structures in Ephesus. It served as his tomb, which was an unusual fact, since people were not buried within a library nor even within city limits. The grave of Celsus was beneath the ground floor, across the entrance and there was a statue of Athena, the goddess of the wisdom, over it"


"CELSUS' LIBRARY - The Library, though built on a narrow lot between existing buildings, has an effect of monumental size. That's due to some tricks: at the entrance to the library there is a 21-meter wide courtyard; nine wide marble steps lead up to a two-story gallery; pediments are supported by a double-decker layer of paired columns; centre columns have larger capitals and rafters than those on the end. All this gives the illusion that the columns are farther apart than they really are. Adding to the illusion, the podium beneath the columns slopes slightly down at the edges"


"CELSUS' LIBRARY - The façade of the two storeys library has Corinthian columns on the ground floor and three entrances to the building. There are three windows in the upper storey. The library could stock up 12,000 scrolls of manuscripts, which were kept in cupboards in niches on the walls. There were double walls behind the bookcases to prevent them from the extremes of temperature and humidity. Celsus' Library was the third richest at the time, after the Alexandria and Pergamum"


"FRONT - Detail of relief at the top centre of the façade"

"STATUES - The statues that may be seen in the niches of the columns nowadays are the copies of the originals taken to Vienna. They symbolize wisdom (Sophia), knowledge (Episteme), intelligence (Ennoia) and virtue (Arete)"


"LIBRARY & MAZEUS GATE - The gate with three passage ways at the right of the Celsus Library was built in 40 A.D by the slaves Mazeus and Mythridates for their emperor, Augustus, who gave them their freedom"


"GREAT THEATRE - Located on the slope of Panayir Hill, opposite the Harbour Street, it is the most magnificent structure in Ephesus. First constructed in the third century BC, during the reign of Lysimachus, it was enlarged in the Roman Period. It is the largest in Anatolia and has capacity for 25,000 people"


"GREAT THEATRE - The Theatre has sixty six rows of seats divided in three sections: the lower section, with marble pieces, used for restoration, and the Emperor's Box; the middle section, with seats with backs made of marble, reserved for VIPs; and the upper circle, for the audience. The stage building has three storeys and is 18 meters high. It was used for concerts, plays, religious, political and philosophical discussions and also for gladiator and animal fights"


"HARBOUR STREET"

51 comments:

Trotter said...

Hi Everybody! This post is dedicated to the Ephesus’ Masterpieces. After seeing the Library of Celsius one can hardly dispute that the building is a magnificent piece of architecture... I’m still impressed anytime I see the pictures and I hope you’ll be also amazed with the post I prepared for you! Meanwhile, enjoy the views, keep commenting and have a great week ahead!!

Olivier said...

c'est magnifique et magique, mais j'aime beaucoup la photo avec la file des touristes : impressionnant tous ces touristes

Gattina said...

I recognize ! It also was very hot that day although it was in May 2007 when I was there

hpy said...

MAsterpiece is the roght word for this facade, but I just wonder if people are afraid of stones that might fall down!

PeterParis said...

Incredible, the number of treasures Turkey offers! Never made it there, much to my regret. The buildings are of course impressive, but so is definteley also the "Harbour Street"! Try to imagine what all this must have been once!

Regina said...

Hello Trotter.
Wow totally very impressive!
Work of geniuses of those days.
It must be a very prosperous city with all the beautiful structures, edifices, street , library and such a big theater.

I often wondered what happened to this ancient city. Why it was destroyed.

Thank you once again for the tour. Until next time.
Have a wonderful week!

BTW. What's the climate over there?

Joy said...

Hey, Gil! Look at all those people. It sure is a very popular place and I can certainly see why. Lovely structure. I would like to visit there someday.

Norwich Daily Photo is back online. Sorry I've been away so long. I look forward to your visit and your comments. See you soon!

Miss Kim said...

Such a wonderful place! I still NEED to visit it!!

diane b said...

What an amazing place. A historians paradise, The temples and great theatre are great structures for an ancient civilisation and they are still standing, wow!Looks a very popular place for tourists.

SusuPetal said...

I'm a huge fan of ruins, so thanks for this post once again, Gil.

MedaM said...

This post as well as the previous one is spectacular. I even cannot imagine what a wonderful feeling is to experience such breathtaking and majestic structures of the ancient civilization. Your photos are outstanding and I completely enjoyed.

Ron said...

This is an awesome post. I am amazed at how old the statues are. That summer and sunshine is getting me jealous.

[G@ttoGiallo] said...

... reactionary G@tto : "Those places shouldn't be allowed to people dressed as tourists. They ruin pictures.

joo said...

Look gorgeous! I've never been there and now i feel like going!

Emery Roth said...

Another wonderful tour.While it's great to see the classic Hellenic sites, it's a special treat to see your images and follow your tour of the less-visited Hellenistic cities and sacred places. Thanks.

A Lady's Life said...

Unbelievably beautiful but also scary the way they show the roof Pieces can still fall off of it.
Wow!

Anonymous said...

Magnificent indeed! Love the scrolls, acanthus leaves, egg and dart, ....all so beautiful and decorative....how did they do that??

eye in the sky said...

mygosh, such beauty all around...

alicesg said...

Wow fantastic. Cannot imagine how big and huge the whole palace is. Life must be good for these ancient rulers.

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Absolutely marvelous! Very well captured as always!

Pietro Brosio said...

Hi Gil! Fabulous and amazing temples, sculptures and ruins! I'd really like to visit those fascinating places! Very beautiful shots and collages!
Happy week :-)

yyam said...

These are magnificent! It must have been awesome to have seen that in person! Thanks for sharing! :)

Have a beautiful week!

Rajesh said...

The shots of temple and theater are beautiful. The carvings on the temple are amazing.

rochambeau said...

Fabulous and intriguing to see! AND you took great photographs too Gil! ones avoiding the people and focusing on the ruins! As always, that you for the mini vacation!

xox
Constance

Hi Mrs. T!!

bindu said...

I like the new look of your blog, and the large size of the pictures, which are magnificent, as usual!

L. Neusiedler said...

wonderful! indeed impressing, to see all that history in one place...

Cergie said...

Hum, je connais une Sophie qui n'est guère sage, elle s'est mariée et séparée moins d'un an après...
La rue du port est une véritable et belle publicité pour ce site. Mais que de monde !
Ces colonnes ces pans de mur ces plafonds tienent debout par l'opération du Saint Esprit pourrait on croire.
Ah ? Les occidentaux ont pillé des trésors sans vergogne pour emplir leurs musées ?

Nikon said...

Amazing shots, Gil. I love the theatre, especially.
I didn't realize how numerous the ancient sites are there!

lv2scpbk said...

All the photos of EPHESUS is amazing. A beautiful place indeed. Love all the details and the closeup photos.

magiceye said...

wow that sure was impressive!!

Sylvia K said...

What a fantastic post! Your photos are superb and I love reading about the history of Ephesus! Have a wonderful weekend! Thank you for your visit and comment, always appreciated and I'm delighted to discover your blog!

Sylvia

Unknown said...

Amazing post...and I really want to be there, happy weekend Gil.

Marja said...

Fascinating to see these beautiful remains of long gone time

Mariposa said...

so breathtaking~~!!! have a wonderful weekend!

My Unfinished Life said...

simply amazing place!!!

Indrani said...

TURKEY!!!
Time to plan the next trip. :)
Great shots!

Ramakrishnan said...

Hi Trotter
Incredible awesome & breathtaking photographs of great monuments of an ancient Greek city now situated in present day Turkey. Isn't this city also known for the famous Temple of Artemis one the seven wonders of the ancient world?

Cheers
Ram

Baron's Life said...

c'est magnifique..ABSOLUTELY STUNNING PHOTOGRAPHY...YOU DO A GREAT JOB...I just love your blog...that's all there is to it. Thank you so much for bringing the world to my desk top.

Cloudia said...

Thanks you!




Aloha from Spring Time in Waikiki


Comfort Spiral

Emm said...

Lovely photos! I especially like the Celsus Library photos - that was my favourite part about Ephesus.

Unseen India Tours said...

Beautiful,lovely and fantastic shots !!Simply amazing and fantastic !!Great post !!

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

Gorgeous photos, Gil! I felt transported back into ancient times.

Emery Roth said...

The library looks amazingly delicate. The builder was buried there. Are his remains intact?

Trotter said...

Hi Everybody! My computer has had some problems with the NVIDIA Graphic processor, so to get in touch with you is now a rather difficult task. I was told that it will take around thirty days to have it settled with HP, as it seems to be still covered by the warranty… Meanwhile, I’m using the portable, but it doesn’t have the same speed and quality of the desk computer. Anyhow, I’ll try to reply to your comments and to post something interesting to keep your attention open to this blog. It’s interesting, but I realized that only around ten people will come here and comment even if I am not able to visit their own blogs… Amazing!! On my turn, I always leave a word anytime I visit a blog on my list. But now, due to the current computer restrictions, I’ve to take some more time to do the job… ;))
The Library of Celsus didn’t get the admiration I was expecting, as it is, from my point of view, one of the most remarkable buildings of the Greek and Roman Antiquity that we still have nowadays… Anyhow, thanks for all of you who take your time to come here and drop a line; a way for this blog to live and his owner to feel like a living body… ;)). I hope you’ll keep enjoying the next posts at least as much as I enjoy creating and publishing them! Have a great week!

Olivier,
Tu sais, Ephèse est juste à coté de Kusadasi, un port en Turquie où on trouve des tas de bateaux de croisière, surtout les plus grands qui font les tours de la Mer Méditerranée… Alors, le jour de notre visite, il semble que tout le monde de tous les bateaux de croisière de la Méditerranée étaient là pour voir les merveilles d’Ephèse. C’est ça la raison pourquoi tu trouves une foule énorme sur le site archéologique…

Gattina,
Already hot in May; it’s amazing… We had four days of an incredible hot weather here in Lisbon by the end of last week; around thirty four degrees centigrade... But now, we are back to the regular weather this year: a stupid rainy day and it seems it will continue at least until the end of the week! Better that way, as sometimes we have wonderful weather during the week and a lousy weekend… ;))

Hélène,
The façade has been recovered by the Austrian between 1970 and 1978 under the direction of Architect Friedmund Hueber. It is supposed to have been a decent work, so I wasn’t afraid of seeing a stone falling from the building just in front of me… ;))

Peter,
It’s true that some of the most precious sites of Hellenic and Hellenistic civilization are kept in Turkey; and to much surprise of mine, they are much better kept than many other sites in Greece itself… They probably resisted time much better, because they weren’t given so much attention there than in many other places… ;)
The Harbour street was certainly a great avenue and, if we compare with present day boulevards, it will most probably match the Champs Elysées, with the great advantage of leading straight to the water… ;))

Regina,
Ephesus was the second largest city of the Empire, just behind the capital Rome. No wonder it had these fabulous buildings, including the magnificent theatre… Furthermore, there is an amazing story linked to the Library: straight from there a tunnel went out to the other side of the street; and where did it lead to? To the brothel… Imagine the stories some men would invent to visit the Library late in the evening… Always learning… ;))
It was destroyed by many concurrent reasons, including national disasters and human fights…
My pleasure to provide you with all this information and pictures to make you happy!! ;) The weather here (I mean in Lisbon, not in Ephesus, as my posts are delayed almost one year now…) was nice last weekend, though a bit too hot for the season: 30º centigrade; now is much lower (23º) and we had some rain today… ;))

april said...

Very impressing buildings. When I visit a famous place I always wish there weren't so many tourists. (But OK, I'm one of them myself, then).

Light and Voices said...

Oh my goodness there are a lot of tourists visiting the library. Amazing that the library could hold 12,000 rolled manuscripts. Weather must have played a part in what manuscripts exist today or not. Do you know where the material is being kept now?
Joyce

Trotter said...

Replies, Part Two:

Joy,
WOW! So great to see you back here and your blog online; during almost a year I was trying to get to your blogs, but there were some weird messages over there; finally you’re back and that is a great pleasure for all of us who used to enjoy the beauty of Norwich Daily Photo!! Great return of the Come Back Girl!!
Ephesus is a wonderful site, and it has the great advantage of being quite close to the port of Kusadasi, a main port for cruise ships; no wonder all those tourists around the place… ;))

Kim,
Welcome back! You’re not that far from it, so a trip from Tirana to Izmir won’t probably be a big deal…

Diane,
The reason for the amount of tourists, further to the high quality of the site, is as already mentioned, the vicinity of the port of Kusadasi, a main cruise port in the Eastern Mediterranean… As for the rest, the city was second to Rome and that explains it all…

Susu,
I never thought that any person but an archaeologist would be a fan of ruins… ;) But I’m truly happy that you enjoyed the pictures… It’s my great pleasure to make you happy so easily… ;)

MedaM,
It’s truly magnificent! I’m glad you liked it…

Ron,
At least some two thousand years old those statues…

G@tto,
You know “L’Idiot du Voyage”? We are all tourists, no longer travellers… ;))

Joo,
You’re much closer than I am…

Ted,
Ephesus is a classic anyhow, by all standards I believe… That Library, recovered by the Austrians some years ago, is absolutely stunning…

Lady,
I don’t think there is any reason to panic…

Lynn,
Maybe using appropriate instruments and a lot of skills… ;)

Eye,
And everything there for you to enjoy!!

Alice SG,
A Library, not exactly a palace… and with a direct tunnel to the brothel… Amazing combination of culture and lust… ;)
Life was surely good for some of the people in those times…

Rakesh,
Thanks!

Pietro,
Time to start packing… ;)

Yvonne,
The view of the library on the spot is absolutely stunning; great emotion to imagine how life would have been those days when Heraclitus was starting to discuss his theories…

Rajesh,
Everything magnificent!!

Alex,
Start packing… ;)

Constance,
I must confess that this time was quite hard to take a picture of the ruins without having at least one hundred people staying around… ;))
Hi to you from Mrs. T…. ;)

Bindu,
Long time no see! It’s a great feeling to have you back commenting at Blogtrotter Two…

Lara,
I told you were going to be impressed…

Lucie,
Tu vois; tout se passe là bas… ;))

Paul,
Turkey has probably the largest amount (and maybe the most well preserved) of the Greek Ancient sites…

Barb,
Glad that you liked it!!

Magic,
Didn’t I tell you? ;)

Silvya,
Thank you for your visit and first time comment here! Look forward to reading your comments here often!

JBar,
Thanks!

M.Kate,
Are you travelling already? Start packing… ;)

Marja,
A magnificent site indeed!!

Mariposa,
Happy that you liked it!!

Star,
I knew you would love it…

Indrani,
After Italy, you’re surely on the good road… ;))

Ram,
You’re entirely right. The most famous monument in Ephesus was the temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The only problem is that there is nothing left, except a single column, constructed of dissociated fragments discovered on the spot, to mark the site...

Baron,
Thanks! I’m truly happy to see that this blog still gives some pleasure to viewers!!

Cloudia,
My pleasure!

Emm,
Great to see it again, isn’t it? I don’t get tired… ;))

Bharat,
Thanks!!

Pat,
It’s great to have you enjoying this virtual tour, after your great real treat trip to LA… ;))

Ted,
He was buried there, but I couldn’t check the remains… ;)

Trotter said...

Ingrid,
There are no travellers today, just tourists… ;))

Joyce,
Probably not a single scroll resisted time …

S-V-H said...

Magnificent indeed Manuel! Unbelievable that after ALL the years and century these is still standing in such a good condition! Hopefully there will be no earthquakes in the future...!

Thanks for sharing :)

[G@ttoGiallo] said...

Visiting this out of the invaders, a dream !

Trotter said...

Sue,
It must be said that there was a recovery made by the Austrians already in the 20th century to put the stones that had fallen back in place... ;)

G@tto,
Not an easy task, unless you go there at eight in the morning... ;)