Here's my best guess at reconstructing the route for our tour. We started at the bottom left of the photo, made our way through the ruins, and finished about top center where all the buses are.
Despite being in ruins, Ephesus does have inhabitants who are not tourists.
I hadn't appreciated just how ruined the city of Ephesus is. Evidently there's quite a lot of the city still buried under the hillside.
One of the things we quickly realized on this tour was that we weren't going to do much standing around and reading about the historical significance of the city. We were, however, going to do lots of climbing on the rocks. This is at the beginning of the tour in the Odeon (around the Basilica on the map), which is where the city council met.
Ali, our guide, did a good job with our group. We would meet at a point, which he would explain. Then he would tell us where we would meet again, usually after 10 or 15 minutes. The next point would get us further through the city. He kept this up for the tour's duration. I think this stop was at the town hall right next to the Odeon.
I mentioned climbing on rocks?
Ephesus wasn't uncomfortably crowded during our tour, but it there were lots of people (and tour guides). The tour guide solution for being seen by their group was to carry umbrellas. Ali's was yellow.
Some of the streets have been restored quite well.
Others not so much.
Photo next to statue of famous person from Greek mythology.
There's clearly been a great deal of work put into restoring the ruins at Ephesus. I didn't appreciate until we got there just how much of the city has not been restored. Here is one example of the city literally emerging from the hillside.
In other places, the structures are being restored but need a little extra help to stand upright.
Toilets. Where slaves had to sit for up to a half hour to warm the marble for their masters. And where men would discuss business while they sat. Hmm.
Here are a few photos that I took because I thought they were interesting, but for the life of me I can't remember why anymore.
Temple of Domitian. This was a hit for the kids (our three girls and a friend they made on the Fun and Sun trip who was also on this tour). Rocks to climb, caves to explore, what's not to like?
Domitian's Well or Heracles' Gate. I'm not sure.
Clare and friend taking a break to sit on one of the many available stones.
Library of Celsus. The front of the library has received the most intentional rebuilding effort. Unlike many of the other ruins, it's more or less intact and rebuilt from ruins of the actual library (as opposed to being rebuilt from bits and pieces of ruins within the site).
View from the porch of the library, looking up the street toward where we started our tour.
Our final stop in Ephesus was the Amphitheater (Amphitheatre for my UK blog readers). It seats 25,000 people, and continues to be used for live performances because its acoustics are so good. The first seat is high enough off the ground to protect spectators from the wild beasts who fought gladiators.
Looking back from the Amphitheater along what's left of the marble road to the library.
Kristine in the Amphitheater.
This was pretty much the edge of the city. We were through the Amphitheater and ready to walk down the path to our bus. Recalcitrant three year old who refused to pose clearly wanted a change of pace.
We had a brief stop at a local pottery shop before lunch. They gave us a demonstration of pottery making, and offered discounts on their finished goods. We settled for a photo.
Our first stop after lunch was at the shrine for the home of the Virgin Mary. Tradition has it that she moved to Ephesus around 40 AD with the Apostle John, and lived at this location for the remaining years of her life.
Passing through the shrine itself was pretty quick. We joined a line that wasn't allowed to stop moving. This meant we were in the shrine itself for about a minute.
We added three candles here after leaving the shrine.
And stopped briefly to look at all the prayers that have been tied to the nearby wall. I was impressed by the variety of languages, and also by the creativity of the people who figured out how to tie their paper onto the existing collection.
View from the window of the bus as we left the shrine. We drove up that road. In a large bus. With large buses going the opposite direction. Yes, it involved a little bit of bus drivers playing chicken. And yes, I breathed easier once we were off the mountain.
Selcuk, the modern city where Efes (Ephesus) used to be, has a population of 35,000. Efes had a population of 250,000 at its peak. That means this valley would have been full of houses and streets. Wow.
Our next stop was the Basilica of St John. The basilica was built from 536 to 565 AD at the order of the Emperor Justinian, who also ordered the destruction of a small church on the site that had been built in honor of the alleged burial place of the Apostle John. Like Ephesus, the basilica was in ruins.
Unlike Ephesus (possibly because it's a much smaller site), there's a full scale model of what the basilica could have looked like.
Clare was much more cheerful at this stop, for two reasons. First, we spent considerably less time (about an hour) than we did at Ephesus (about three hours). Second, we let her sit down and eat snacks.
Continuing the "Elise on a pedestal" photos.
View from the basilica looking at the grand fortress of Selcuk. The flags were in honor of Turkish Independence Day, which was celebrated on the previous day.
Our last stop was the temple of Artemis. Here's what's left of it. Ali politely told us that if we wanted to see the rest of the temple, we'd have to visit the British and German museums where the pieces had been hauled off to at the beginning of the 20th century.
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