THE WAY TO EPHESUS

EPHESUS - JULY 2009

A visit to the ruins of Ephesus is a must if you're travelling somehow to the Anatolian Peninsula in Turkey. The present day ruins are of the city established by Lysimachus, one of the generals of Alexander the Great in the 3rd century B.C. During its Golden Age (2nd century B.C.), the city had a population of around 250,000 and it monopolized the wealth of the Middle East. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era and during the Roman period, it was the second largest city of the Roman Empire, to the Temple of Artemis, another one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.


"TURKISH ROADS - The distance between Bodrum and Ephesus is roughly 160 km, so we had much time to see roads in Turkey. Sometimes, like in the last row of pictures, one asks himself where the road is…"


"LAKE BAFA - The lake used to be a gulf of the Aegean Sea until the sea passage was closed by the alluvial mass brought by the Maeander River. The southern shore is traced by the highway connecting İzmir-Kuşadası-Söke to Milas and Bodrum. The northern shore of the lake remains virtually untouched"


"EPHESUS VALLEY - Showing also the ramparts up the hills and the Agorae of the ancient city"


"ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE ENTRANCE - As seen from the Odeon"


"ODEON & BASILICA - The Odeon was a small roofed theatre for plays and concerts, seating about 1,500 people. The 160m long Basilica is typically Roman. It was used for stock exchange and commercial business, as well as home to the law courts. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the middle of the Fourth Century AD"


"VARIUS' BATHS - The ruins to the east of the Basilica belong to Varius' Baths (2nd century A.D, though the mosaics in the corridor date from the 5th century). It has three sections: frigidarium, tepidarium and caldarium"


"COUNCIL PALACE - Behind the basilica is the Prytaneion, where religious ceremonies, official receptions and banquets were held"


"COLUMN FESTIVAL"


"STROLLING IN THE OLD TOWN - Starting with the Pollio Fountain, built in 97 A.D. by C.S.Pollio and his family and located near the Odeon, and then moving to the Trajan Fountain, built around 104 and one of the finest monuments in Ephesus. We may also see the ruins of the Domitian Temple - the first structure in Ephesus known to be dedicated to an emperor - and the Curetes Street (named after the priests who took this name later). On the right hand side column: the Terraces Houses, the Brothel, a peristyle house where a statue of Priapus with an oversize phallus was found and the important public toilets. The water was brought from three main sources through aqueducts and distributed from fountains"


"MEMMIUS MEMORIAL - It was constructed during the reign of Augustus in the 1st century A.D by Memmius, the grandson of Dictator Sulla, to remind the conquer of Mithridates in 87 BC"


"DECORATIONS"


"SKOLASTICIA BATHS - The original structure was thought to have been three-storied but the upper two stories collapsed. The baths have a dressing room (apodyterium) with ten cabins, a cold room (frigidarium) with its pool, a warm room (tepidarium) to relax, and finally a hot room (caldarium). The second floor was used for massage as a therapy"