After Istanbul we flew to a city called Izmir to begin our road trip down the Turkish coast. The first stop though was inland in a town called Selcuk (pronounced Selchuk). Why stay there? To see Ephesus, the best preserved classical city in the eastern Mediterranean, if not all of Europe (this is clearly not my own language, yes I copy and pasted).
If you read the last post on Istanbul you'll sort of know that I'm not a history buff, at all. But Turkey is such an old country, with so much history that it would be ignorant of us not to learn some of it. Plus I find myself more curious by the day trying to imagine what it was like back 'then'.
So for our less than 24 hour stint in Selchuk we decided to hire a guide to tour us around Ephesus and teach us about this former grand capital of the Roman province of Asia which had close to 400,000 inhabitants dating back as far 1200 BC. Our guide 'Octay', supposedly related to the Greek God Octavius, was the best.
This is Octay. We asked him a million questions and he'd kindly but directly told us, 'be patient, I will get to it' - I would have scolded us too.
The Temple of Hadrian, to publicly honor General Theodosius who was hanged innocently. This is the second most famous attraction at Ephesus.
Background is Curetes Street - the Champs Elysees of Ephesus - which had dozens of store fronts and pedestals displaying statues of honored citizens.
The men's latrines. I found this one pretty fascinating with full plumbing and clean running water. honestly, better than some of the toilets Josh and I have experienced in present day Turkey! This was a social gathering place for men to shoot the sh*t - scuse the pun. Many of the wealthy elite would frequent the latrines. It was a hot spot.
Known as the Terraced Houses in Ephesus. This is a photo of a living room in one of the houses where the elite of the Roman world lived. These homes were several 1000 square feet with every modern luxury you could think of. It's impressive and amazing the way people lived several thousand years ago.
The most famous attraction, the Library of Celsus. It was the third largest library in the ancient world. One of the neatest things was on the steps of the library a menorah had been inscribed (under order of Caesar) as an acknowledgement of the Jews help against Egypt. Josh obviously appreciated this one.
Sadly the end of the tour with Octay.
I thought I'd throw in a few other photos from Selcuk itself. Before going we hadn't heard much of anything about the town - its typically more of a pit stop for people visiting Ephesus - but we thought it had charm.
Hotel Nazar where we stayed. The place is family run - literally three generations working there. We felt like we were living alongside them and their five year old grandson who had some serious pipes!
Our first Lahmacun - Turkish pizza - with ground meat on top and no cheese. So good especially after our three hour tour in the sizzling sun.
The men out drinking tea and socializing. Sorry had to point it out again!
Our token animal picture. We always have to have at least one! This was Ellis and as you can see Josh is smitten.
As we're about to leave Selcuk/Ephesus the trunk of our rental car wouldn't close and a couple of the family members from Nazar Hotel tried to help. We ended up driving a few hours with our trunk roped closed (once again I'm grateful for Boy Scouts). Long story short we didn't actually break the trunk. Good news.
Next blog I'll fill you in on our first week or so on the Turkish Coast. It may be even more beautiful than I thought it would be.
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Location:Selcuk and Ephesus, Turkey
