Ephesus and Pamukkale (Sam)

(Sam) May 4th

Oops, I seem to really be falling behind so I will just skim over the rest of Greece.

We took an overnight ferry from Santorini to Rhodes and spent 4 days in Rhodes; we had a great time. We spent most of our time wandering around the amazing walled old town and we also met up with my aunt and uncle from England who were there on holiday. We had supper together one night and a day later we went to Lindos, a pretty town on the east coast. Rhodes Old Town was quite amazing, and judging by the number of visitors it was obviously no secret.

From Rhodes, we took a catamaran to Marmaris, in Turkey, We did not linger long in Marmaris, we headed straight up to Selçuk which is where we are now. Today was quite the day, we got up bright and early and walked 3 km to the ruined city of Ephesus. Famed as one of the best preserved ancient cities in the Mediterranean region. It was originally a harbour city although now its about 3 km from the sea. The first major ruin you see once you enter the site is the Theatre, made to seat 25,000 it is a truly amazing sight. Despite seating less than half the number of people, the theatre in Amman was more spectacular because it is steeper, giving the illusion of being bigger that it actually is. The streets in Ephesus still have their original paving stones, and many of the columns have been reassembled.

The Library of Celsus, the most famous roman monument in Turkey, is It is a beautiful two story facade full of carvings with niches to hold statues of the gods. An interesting feature is that the bottom story is convex (bulges out) and the pillars in the middle are larger that the ones on the end, making it look larger. When we first arrived here, early in the morning the site was busy, but not too cramped, about 30 minutes later tour groups from the nearby resort of Kuşadasi arrived and things got crowded. It was as the city would have been in it's heyday. After the Library, we walked up the marble paved road, past many other crumbling monuments including a fountain, a toilet, an odeon and and various other bits and pieces. On our walk back to Selçuk from Ephesus, we dropped in at the Temple of Artemis. Yes, the “7 Ancient Wonders of the World”, Temple of Artemis. Unfortunately it is now just one pillar remaining out of 127 and a couple other stones laying in a marsh. One good thing was that there were dozens of baby turtles in the marsh. I even got to pet one.

May 6^th

We took a comfy bus from Selçuk to Denizli and a minibus from there to Pamukkale. We found a nice hostel and relaxed all afternoon. Today we woke up bright and early and headed up to the travertines and Hierapolis. The travertines are pools formed by mineral deposits from calcium rich water running down the hill, Hierapolis is the ruins of the Roman spa city built atop the travertines. Walking around on the white cliffs was very cool, especially with the hot water running over our feet the whole time. The rock was very grippy and worked as a pumice; my feet feel very smooth now. When we got to the top of the hill we walked around in Hierapolis. We saw tombs, roads and an amazing roman theatre which had extra large roman cupholders. Halfway through the day it started to rain so went into the museum and also had some tea in a cafe. Tea is an obsession here and I have at least 4 cups most days. Tea is served in small tulip shaped glasses with two sugar cubes. Later, we wandered back down the travertines, walked around town a bit and had intestine sandwiches for supper.