The final leg of the tour was highlighted by a walk through the ruins of Ephesus but also included a visit to the house and place of death of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. Needless to say it was wall to wall South American, Philipines, Eastern European catholics there to pay homage to their beloved Mother Mary. After the resurrection Jesus charged John to take care of Mary and when things got a bit heavy he brought her to the forest surrounding Ephesus to be safe. Nice story especially when you hear that the whereabouts of the house was revealed by a nun after she had a vision in a dream on her death bed. It was an interesting visit.
But next was Ephesus and this was extremely impressive. Here is where you could look down the main road, lined with remnants of the shops that would have been there in ancient times, towards the port. This is the road that every visitor to Ephesus would have walked up. I immediately got to thinking, Paul, John, Mary would all have walked up that road. I wasn’t there to pay homage but it was a bit of a buzz to think that these people of the bible were here and the fact that the road is still there and the structures have been rebuilt from actual remains meant that it wasn’t difficult to imagine it at all.
One cool bit was the library, the 3rd largest of the ancient world. It had been partially rebuilt and really did look impressive. But the funniest thing was that there existed a tunnel connecting the library to the brothel which allowed men to tell their wives that they were going to the library and discreetly pop over to the brothel. It reminds of the pub in Sydney named the office. Even funnier still were the coded messages in the footpath describing how to get to this tunnel for the non-locals.
But that was not the only secret sign. The sign of the Fish and Games was used by the early persecuted Christians as the Greek letters referring to Christ are hidden within this sign. There were still a few dotted around the ruins on the footpaths and it was quite freaky to imagine an early Christian, under threat of death, scratching this into a pavement to let another brother know that they were there. Pieces of a puzzle that up until now was theoretical or written only but now I see it with my own eyes.
The ancient sites were mind blowing. Seeing marble columns still looking amazing, engineering feats that seemed unbelievable for ancient people to have developed and the dedication of the few that spend years delicately sifting through the ruins to allow people like me to learn more about the past but also to stare at those sites and imagine all that went on there and the historical events that took place.
In Ephesus was a pretty impressive theatre that had been restored partially using original materials and partially using new materials. It was massive and the home of some pretty nasty displays of so called sport in the past. Today, it continues to be used as a venue where the likes of Pavarotti, Sting, Elton John and others performed. It would be quite unique to watch a gig there I must admit. It seats about 25,000 but I would hasten to suggest that bringing a cushion would be well advised.
After Ephesus we were taken to a leather goods outlet in another attempt to squeeze more money out of the tourist which is fair I guess. But their approach was pretty rare and out there. We (there was only 3 of us at this stage) were treated to models striding down the catwalk in leather jackets trying to entice us to buy them. But the icing on the cake, at least for the others, was that I was dragged up, dressed in a leather jacket (over the top of a t-shirt, track shorts, sandshoes and a hat – great look) and made to do a few laps. Oh well, the others got a laugh. I was nearly tempted to buy a jacket as they were very nice but $700 was a little bit too much.
The ruins of the Temple of Artemis was extremely underwhelming until our guide pointed out that in one view you could see a pagan temple, a mosque and a Christian church (Basilica of St John). Pretty impressive really and more so when you learn that materials from the temple were used on the Basilica and then used in the Mosque.
Two things can be taken from all of this. One, magnificent example of re-use. Secondly, although it is suggested that Türkiye is an open religious country, any faith comes a distant second to Islam.
IZMIR
My last 2 days in Türkiye were in Izmir. I visited Cesme first visiting the castle, finally finding a beach with deck chairs and umbrellas available and lastly the absolutely gorgeous streets of Alacati. It was a steaming hot and the swim was well needed and it meant that I can now add the Aegean Sea to the places I have swum.
Alacati is stunning but also very touristy. It is very “Instagram” and the shop owners do everything to make their shop front or restaurant worthy of a photograph. There is a swing there which, to be honest, is way out of place but gets lines of people waiting to take the same photo thousands of others have taken. It did make me rethink some of the photos I take I must say.
The next day was even hotter and I hid for most of the day inside. Came out to visit a Roman ruin in the heart of the city. It was still very much an active archaeology site and I reckon in a few years when they rebuild bits of it it will look pretty impressive.
All up Türkiye was an experience I enjoyed a lot. My preconceptions were nearly all quashed. It has its dodgy elements but so does everywhere. They have a strong take on honour which I guess stems from their history particularly their imperial history. The speech of Ataturk is a clear example of that. They are keen to keep a foot in both camps namely the Middle East and Europe but the Islam is the defining element and clearly it is what is controlling the direction of the country. The Western half I visited was a lot more liberal than Istanbul was interesting. The history there was something to behold and again it was riddled by conqueror after conqueror and many and varied occupants. But they too were occupants as the Ottomans and they weren’t exactly model rulers, as seen for example in Bosnia against the locals there and we saw what that led to in 1992-95 and to this day. One thing I didn’t answer in my time there was what would the Middle East and the world look like today if the Ottoman Empire still existed. They’d control a lot of the oil reserves but would there be unity? There’d be no Israel for starters. Iran and Iraq would be outside of the Empire and only parts of Saudi Arabia would be included. I do wonder if there’d be stability or would their power cause a different issue? I’d go back to Türkiye because there is so much more to see in Istanbul and also other nice areas but maybe I’ll wait for a bit.
Altamira Sound & Vision Productions 