Mark posing before a glacier’s edge? In Turkey?

This just proves that you can travel the world for years and still come across something utterly unique, something you’ve just never seen before.

From Izmir we went about 135 miles southeast to Pamukkale, still enjoying the Turkish bus system. Pamukkale has been a destination for thousands of years because of the way a couple dozen hot springs create, as the guide book says, “travertines” – as though anyone has a clue what a travertine is. But it was supposed to be a one-of-a-kind sight, and it is adjacent to the ruins of the ancient city of Hieropolis, so we went.

Even after getting there, we weren’t sure what the deal was. You sit in the town and you can see this whitish stuff kind of coming down over the hillside across the road. Still, what’s the big deal?

Sure looks like a snow covered hill to me

Unlike anything we’ve ever seen

This has also been a great example of how attention to our historic legacy can bring about positive change. Through history this wasn’t just a geological oddity; the thermal waters were believed to be therapeutic, and from the time of ancient Greeks people have been coming here to “take the cure.” As recently as 50 years ago, though, there were hotels up on the hill using the hot springs for their pools, and motorbikes were driving up and down the slopes. The combination was draining the hot springs, destroying the remains of the ancient city, and ruining the travertines.

In 1988, then, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site and Turkey took action. They tore the hotels down and removed the roads that ran up the slopes. They even prohibited people from wearing shoes while walking up and down the hill; you have to go barefoot.

And it all worked. Now it’s a glorious, festive area, with hundreds of people going up and down, playing in the pools created both naturally and by hand. It was so unusual, so crazy, that after walking through it our first afternoon and evening, we went back up the next morning to do it again.

Ruins in Hieropolis are everywhere, including half exposed on a walkway through the site

Oh, and Hieropolis. The ancient city was founded as a thermal spa some 4,000 years ago. In Roman times the Apostle Phillip spent his last years here, and was reported to have been martyred on a hill overlooking modern Pamukkale. Our tour of the ruins included his “martyrion” along with a really great theater, probably built under the reign of Hadiran and one of the most remarkable ancient restorations we’ve seen anywhere.

The theater of Hieropolis

While admiring the remains of the theater I was reminded of our visit to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, which displays reconstructed monumental buildings like the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus. As much as I enjoyed seeing them in Berlin, I kept thinking “Shouldn’t these be at their original sites?” Well, here at Hieropolis, as in Ephesus, these monumental structures are in their original sites and it is where they belong.

Finally, just a word on how lucky we are to be able to pass leisurely through Turkey like this. Most people, if they get to Pamukkale and Hieropolis at all, do it as a day trip, a quick hop off the bus, walk around, and back on. We were able to spend two days there and go back just because we really enjoyed our first walk through. That’s the luxury of time.

People have been coming to the area to retire – and eventually die – for thousands of years, so there are lots of sarcophagi around. This was in a cute little museum adjacent to the ruins and reminded us how amazing it is that these huge burial chambers were cut out of a single piece of stone. Pretty amazing, when you think about it.

Mark, on the entry to the tour through the ruins. That hedge behind him was rosemary, enough to last you a lifetime.

The latrines of Hieropolis. Seriously.

Steps up to the hill where the Apostle Phillip was martyred

One more shot of the amazing theater

Also next to the ruins is a pool fed by the hot springs. They’ve tossed a bunch of old columns and stuff in it so you can swim through ancient ruins.

Fun!

Sunset over the travertines

Going, going …

Sure looks like he’s standing barefoot in the snow. For what it’s worth, the shoe was someone else’s.

I was there, too

The Library of Celsus, essentially a university of its time and the iconic symbol of Ephesus

OK, there’s gonna be a lot of pictures here.

Ephesus: home of the Ephesians to whom Paul wrote that letter, capital of Roman Asia Minor, longtime residence of John the Apostle and allegedly the Virgin Mary, site of Cleopatra & Mark Antony’s rendezvous before their final defeat at Augustus’s hands, and the location of the Temple of Artemis, another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. According to the ancient Greek historian Strabo, at the time of Augustus Ephesus was second only to Rome in term of size and importance. And into the 5th and 6th century, Ephesus was the most important Asian city in the Byzantine Empire save for only Constantinople itself. There’s a lot here, and we have pictures of all of it.

And cats.

This little cutie greeted us very shortly after entering the ruins of Ephesus. She wasn’t alone.

It’s worth noting that this was my second visit to Ephesus. In February 1975 the ship I was on sailed to Izmir and a group of us did a day-trip to Ephesus. Nineteen-year-old Jim really didn’t know anything about anything at that time, and so over the last several years I’ve been eager to see it again so I could truly appreciate it. Mission accomplished – I really appreciated it this time. Who knows, maybe I’ll come back again in another 40 years, this time as hopefully spry 99-year-old.

We stayed two nights in Selçuk, a cute little town just a couple miles from the old ruins. Mostly the town serves as a stop for tourists like us who want to see the ruins at Ephesus on more than a day-tour basis, but we enjoyed the town on its own terms. Around the region, though, it’s known for the annual camel wrestling championships, which take place in January. (Seriously. They hold a female camel in heat nearby and male camels wrestle until one of them falls or flees. Strange but apparently true.)

Remains of the Basilica of St. John

The 14th century Mosque of Isa Bey sits just below the Basilica of St. John. They appear to coexist peacefully.

The highlight of Selçuk itself is the remains of the Basilica of St. John, a 6th century church commissioned by the Emperor Justinian on what was believed to be the site of John the Apostle’s tomb. It is known historically that some point after the death of Christ, probably around 55 AD, John left Jerusalem to avoid persecution and came to Ephesus. While here he is believed to have written the Gospel According to John along with three Epistles. He may have been exiled at some point to the island of Patmos where he would have written Revelations, though many believe that was a different John. At any rate, he died in Ephesus (probably the last of the apostles to die) and as Christianity gained in popularity his tomb eventually warranted the Emperor Justinian’s attention.

Cats were here, too

Posing, just a couple minutes after having been stung on my finger by a wasp. That hurts!

One more word about St. John and the historic sites here. One site that we didn’t go to was the purported house of the Virgin Mary. According to legend she accompanied John from Jerusalem to Ephesus and died here. Then in the early 19th century a crippled German nun claimed to have a mystical relationship with Mary; in visions, she saw where Mary had lived. A French priest followed her directions and – voila! – a shrine was discovered. Now, the only “evidence” that Mary was ever in Ephesus is that, while on the cross, Jesus told John to take care of his mother. That’s it. From that grew the legend that she must have lived in Ephesus near John and then a mystical nun “found” her house. Given the relative weakness of the case we decided to pass on her house. Oh, and besides that, I went there when I was in Ephesus in 1975, so I already have the picture.

The next morning we headed out to the ruins of Ephesus itself to be there when it opened at 8:30, hoping to miss the worst of the crowds and heat. It was a good move, as the crowds really picked up later in the morning and it got really hot. The chance to walk through the remains of the central city in the cool morning air, with manageable crowds, was really something. We’ve toured a lot of Roman and Greek ruins, but Ephesus might well be the most complete, the most alive, of any we’ve ever seen. You could really get a sense of the scale and grandeur of the place. And when you associate it with the people who walked on the same streets – Alexander the Great, Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Augustus, Hadrian, and on and on – it is genuinely awesome.

The first long stretch very shortly after opening, so no crowds (yet)

The Temple of Hadrian

Looking down Curetes Way, the main thoroughfare in Ephesus, toward the Library of Celsus

Mark’s favorite picture from the day, the Library again

The Great Theater, which seated 25,000

Part way down Curetes Way archeologists have been recovering what are called the Terraced Houses, homes of some of Ephesus’s richest and most prominent citizens. The work there is simply remarkable. They’ve built stairs snaking up and down and around the site so you get a great view of six or seven different houses. It includes some of the most intact ancient mosaics I’ve ever seen and great frescos. You get a real sense of how the houses were laid out and how impressive they were – grand halls, marble walls, even hot and cold baths. It’s a working site, so you can watch people doing their painstaking work to rebuild the ancient wonders. And to top it off (so to speak), the space is all covered by a somewhat translucent roof, making the space pleasantly cool on a day that was getting increasingly hot. They charge an extra few dollars to tour the area and we were very glad to have splurged.

One of the rooms in the Terraced Houses. Note the mosaic floor and frescoed walls.

A closer view of just one piece of flooring, a lion devouring a lamb. Can’t blame him, I like lamb, too.

This is a workspace in the site, where they are apparently piecing together marble walls and mosaic floors. To me it looks like the damnedest jigsaw puzzle ever.

Mark up near the top of the Terraced Houses site

Another highlight for me was the Church of Mary, an early 5th century church and supposedly the first church dedicated to Mary. Besides being cool ruins, the church played an important part in the early history of the Catholic Church. It was to this church in 431 AD that Emperor Theodosius summoned the church’s third ecumenical council, the Council of Ephesus. Over several weeks the leaders of the church debated the teachings of Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, that Mary gave birth to the human Jesus but not the God Jesus. It’s hard for me to understand or really even believe how important this distinction was at the time, but apparently it was a very big deal. Ultimately the council confirmed the Nicene Creed and condemned Nestorius’s teachings. And it all happened here!

Remains of the Church of Mary, where the Council of Ephesus was held

With all that, we’re till not done with all the great ruins in the area. The Temple of Artemis, another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stood in Ephesus, too. Stood, though, is really the relevant word. Though it once stood proudly with 127 60-foot columns. Today just one remains so, rather than being very wonderful at all it is, the the words of Lonely Planet, “just a 20-second photo opportunity.”

That’s what’s left of the Temple of Artemis. Pretty impressive, huh?

So that was Ephesus, a pretty great little stop. From here we’re heading north to Izmir, Turkey’s third largest city, for a couple of days and then we’ll continue wandering around Turkey. Here are some more photos that I just couldn’t resist.

A fountain at the top of the Upper Road

Another view of the Library of Celsus

A closeup of the entrance to the Temple of Hadrian

Mark with that Library as background

Marble Street, connecting the Library to the Great Theater

Harbor Street, connecting the ancient harbor to the Great Theater. When I was here 40 years ago our guide told us that this was the road that Mark Antony came up as he arrived to join forces with his lover Cleopatra for their fight to the finish with Octavius, who would soon become Caesar Augustus.

There’s a nice little museum in Selçuk, which included this multi-breasted statue of Artemis

And this huge head and arm from a statue of the Emperor Domitian from the late 1st century AD

A highlight of the stay was Ejdar Restaurant, a family-run place with Mom responsible for mezzos, Dad on the grill, and son serving. They say that Bill & Hillary ate here when he was President, so they were pretty impressed when Mark showed them the picture of me with Hillary. Now they think we’re Important People.

This little cutie was watching our dinner closely. And no, she didn’t go away hungry.

Mark loves his Turkish coffee, thick enough to eat with a spoon