Ephesus, Turkey

We spent the day of May 20, in Ephesus, Turkey. Ephesus was an important center for early Christianity with Paul living there from 52 to 54 AD. He worked with the congregation and organized missionary activities into other locals.

 Paul also became embroiled in a dispute with the artisans of Ephesus, whose livelihood depended on selling the statuettes of Artemis in the Temple of Artemis.

Between 53 and 57 AD he wrote his letter of 1 Corinthians from Ephesus. Later Paul wrote his Epistle to the Ephesians while he was in prison in Rome around 62 AD.

We went to see the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus.

Our group settled in some seats at the Odeon to listen to Michael Wilcox give a lecture.

We climbed to the top and found a place to sit in the shade.

The Odeon was constructed in the 2nd century AD. Its first use was for the meetings of the Boulea or the Senate. The most important decisions and city matters were discussed here. The second function was for a concert hall for performances. It had the capacity of 1,500 spectators.

The Domitian Temple.

The Pollio Fountain was built in 97 AD by the rich Ephesian C.S. Pollio and his family. The water was brought to the fountains of Ephesus from three main sources through aqueducts and distributed from fountains by a branching system of baked clay pipes.

Sculpture of the winged goddess Nike.

Crowds of tourists everywhere we went!!

Fountain of Trajan.

Temple of Hadrian.

Baths of Scholastica.

The public latrines.

Terrace houses were built on the slope of the hill for the rich people of Ephesus.

There is a restoration process going on rebuilding these terrace houses.

It is like a big jigsaw puzzle to try and piece everything back together again.

The homes were two stories high with frescoes on the walls and mosaics on the floors.

They had a water system in their homes with water running through clay pipes in the walls and under the floors.

The Library of Celsus was built by a son to honor his father who was the General Governor of the Roman province of Asia in 135 AD. It was one of the largest libraries of the ancient world and it could host more than 12,000 scrolls.

Celsus died when he was 70 years old and he was buried in a marble sarcophagus in a cellar under the library.

The Marble Street was the main street of the city. It was constructed in the 1st century AD and one side was adorned with marble statues along its length. It has been damaged several times and was rebuilt in the 5th century AD.

The Great Theatre of Ephesus where the apostle Paul was arrested for preaching Christianity.

The Great Theatre from a distance.

A bunch of sarcophaguses (or sarcophagi?) lying around in a field.

We were amused by this turtle during another one of Michael Wilcox's lectures.

Bascilica of St. John which stands over the believed burial site of John the Apostle.

Two busloads of our Fun For Less group stopped at this hotel for lunch.

It was very impressive when we walked in and our food was already on the tables.

Our first and only Turkish appetizers and meal.

Our two busloads were then taken to Rossini, where we watched a fashion show.

The models wore leather coats and at the end of the runway they would take off their coats and flip them inside out and show us the reversible side of the items.

The guy models would flip their coats inside out as well.

It was always exciting to see what the reversible fabric color or pattern would be.

Last model on the runway...

Following the fun fashion show, we were ushered back into their big showroom and the sales people tried to get us to buy the very expensive leather items.

A leather wallet caught Glen's eye. He was comparing his rubber band "wallet" to the real thing. Hmmm, $275 for the leather money holder compared to free rubber bands he gets off produce from the grocery store...

Back on the ship once again. Glen enjoyed the view from our balcony while I was getting ready for the evening.

It was dress up night in the dining room for a second time. The food was delicious!!

Glen always chose mint chocolate chip dessert if it was available.

The rest of us ordered an assortment of sweet treats even though it may look like it was just me ready to dig in and eat all of the desserts. I must admit I started out the cruise ordering just sorbet and then branched out and ordered a couple of desserts each evening.

 The step count for the day was 13,850 which is 6.99 miles.