A Journey into the Past...

On one of our last weekends in Istanbul, Morgan and I were invited to stay at the summer house of a couple that we had begun tutoring at the start of the school year. We booked a flight from Istanbul to Izmir, in the south west of Turkey, and spent two wonderful days being toured and pampered!

We arrived at the summer house late on Friday night, as Ozlem was meeting us from Ankara and her flight came in 3 hours later than ours. Ozgur took Morgan and I to the waterfront in Izmir while we were awaiting her arrival to see a bit of the city. The city itself was a lot smaller and nicer than Istanbul – at least the area that we live in. It seems more geared toward tourism and I found it to be more welcoming in its design than cramped and crowded Istanbul. As the summer house was about an hour drive from Izmir, we didn’t arrive there until after 1am!

On Saturday they took us to see the ancient city of Ephesus, dating to the 10th century B.C, and some of the ancient sites around the ruins of the city itself. It is said that Androklos, the mythical founder of Ephesus, founded the city when a prophecy told to him by an oracle came true – “A fish and a boar will show you the way.” The city was very impressive in that a lot of it is still very well preserved. When it was thriving, it was a successful and important port city that was surrounded by some very important sites of the ancient world. Ephesus was most famous for its temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis, daughter of Zeus, and goddess of forests and hills. It was also the site of the Celsus Library, which held 12,000 scrolls and also served as a tomb for Celsus himself, and St. John’s Basilica, built in his memory since Ephesus is where he is believed to have written much of his Gospel after Jesus’ death. Ephesus is said to have played an extremely important role in the beginning of Christianity in the 50’s A.D., as St. Paul spent a few years there himself, writing some of his Acts which are now found in the Bible, and St. John is believed to have taken the Virgin Mary there after the crucifixion to live out the remainder of their days.

We started our tour of the city at the shrine built at the site believed to be the place where the Virgin Mary went to spend her remaining years after the crucifixion. The small house is only two small rooms with an altar and religious paintings of her, and serves as a place where Christians worldwide can make a pilgrimage to pay their respects. The shrine sits atop a hill that has an amazing view of the ancient city of Ephesus as well as the surrounding countryside, making for a serene and peaceful atmosphere.

From there we walked through the ruins of St. John’s Basilica, which also sits atop a hill overlooking the country-side as well as the site of the Temple of Artemis. There is quite a bit of the foundation still standing today, and walking through you can see evidence of various rooms that were used for worship. For example, in the centre of one room were steps leading down into a small, shallow pool used for baptisms. Up on a nearby hill the ruins is a fortress that is supposedly built around the grave of St. John himself – this was closed to the public however, so we were unable to see the tomb ourselves. Still, the view from the Basilica was quite impressive nonetheless.

When we entered the ruins of the city of Ephesus, we first visited the site of the Church of St. Mary, which was much larger than the shrine dedicated to her. There are still remnants of the altar left standing, as well as a larger hall that houses what looks to be a large basin used for baptisms. As the ancient city was home to people who played many significant roles in the beginning of Christianity, it is almost surreal to think we were walking in the footsteps of so many worshipers that have visited the site through the centuries – both when the city was actually being used and since excavations began in 1869.

Sitting within the Great Theatre was extremely impressive – the knowledge that the ancient people had of acoustics and how to create an open-aired structure that would allow for such great sound was truly incredible! The theatre itself is quite large – having the capacity to house 25,000 spectators – and is under constant reconstruction and excavation. While sitting at the top of the seats within the Great Theatre we watched a tour-guide give a demonstration on the acoustic sound – I was very impressed to learn that I could understand everything he was saying, without him having to raise his voice at all! The Celsus Library was just a short walk away from the Great Theatre and most of what still remains is the remarkable entrance of the library itself – flanked with pillars and statues of the Virtues – and the inner foundations where the scrolls had been kept in ancient times. The site itself was not too large, but it was still inspiring to see a place that housed so much knowledge.

We had to make a short stop within the gate of Hercules, which simply consists now of two pillars, both with a relief of Hercules holding a lion’s head on them. The legend is that the lion had been terrorizing villagers, but as it had an unusually thick skin, no one had been able to kill it. Along came mighty Herc, a demi-god (half-man, half-god) and thrust his arm down the lion’s throat until it suffocated and died. The relief is a symbol of his victory over the mighty lion. Naturally, being the mature adults that we are, we had to stop to take our own “Hercules” photos!

After we finished our tour through the city, we travelled the short distance to the site of the ruins of the Temple of Artemis. While the site itself leaves a lot to the imagination – nothing is standing other than a single pillar and some stones – it was still worth the visit to say that I have now been to the sites of THREE of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World!

On the Sunday, we visited Güzelçamli National Park, where we spent the afternoon on the beach enjoying the sunshine. The park has something like 11 beaches, but only the first 4 are open to the public as the others are only 1 km away from the Greek island that sits just off the coast of the park. Apparently they have a problem with refugees and fugitives, so the army patrols the remaining beaches where the distance between the island and the beach is close enough to swim across! Overall, it was definitely a trip worth remembering!