Oy Vey, Izmir

[Ed. Note: It's Ephesus, but with Judy leaving Turkey soon, there were ever fewer opportunities to use the subject line.] 

Wednesday -- My trip from the airport in Izmir to Ephesus had breathtaking views of the Aegean Sea. The area is mainly agricultural.  There are many little villages and each one has a Mosque and minaret, like a little American or European town with churches and steeples.  One thing I noticed here and in Israel are solar water tanks on all the roofs.  I really don't know if houses in California, Florida and Arizona have them but if they don't, they should. The driver hooked me up with my Ephesus tour and I joined a mini bus with luggage and all.  Koreans, Japanese, Malaysians  and myself were off for the day with our tour guide who was very interesting.

First we went to the house of the Virgin Mary.  A German nun, I think in the 19th century had a vision about this location.  There is historical information which makes this site a strong possibility.  Pope Paul declared this an official site of the Virgin Mary about 30 years ago.  Ephesus was a very large city of about 250,000 people at the time of Christ.  The city itself dates back to the 9th Century BC.  After the crucifixion Mary was kind of a fugitive in Jerusalem and the story goes that she and John the Evangelist who was only about 18 at the time escaped to Ephesus.
The city lasted until the 7th century AD.  It was a major port.  The water receded and the port turned into marshland and became rife with mosquitos and rampant with malaria.  That caused the demise of the city of Ephesus.

Ephesus had a busy port with many sailors stopping there.  There was a bordello at the entrance.  Next to the brothel was a library which was the third largest library in the ancient world.

The first photo in this post is the library with the brothel on the left.  The next photo is of Medusa, a monster whose image was used to scare off evil-doers.  The next photo is a figure, I don't know who at the library.  

The road was the entrance or exit which led to the port.

The theater sat 20,000. There was a concert there with Sting which sat 15,000. People were smaller in the ancient times. The photo which merits some discussion is the communal men's room. [Ed. Note: See previous two posts for referenced images.] The sailors were said to have used the facilities. Some say the slaves went before their masters to warm up the marble. Nevertheless the trough in front held clean water and there were mops to clean the behinds. The most unbelievable thing is that the urine was saved, boiled and a cleaning fluid was made from the vapor. How's that for recycling!

The tablets with Mecury was a sign for those who could not read that the agora was ahead.  Likewise there were signs for medical care and for the pharmacy.  The agora of which I have no photos had a lovely mosaic floor like having a red carpet.

Visiting Ephesus was really a high point.