Ephesus and Kusadasi, Turkey

Founded in the 13th century B.C. (no, not kidding, that’s 1,400 before Christ even got here. THOUSANDS of years ago), Ephesus, or more specifically, the Temple of Artemis, was considered one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world.

And it’s no wonder it was a wonder (…couldn’t resist…). This was a city built back when there weren’t any cities, and this wasn’t just any city. This place held 250,000 people. Can you imagine putting that many people together in one place before running water, before modern sanitation, before modern medicine, heck – 1,400 years before CHRIST even! We are talking about a gigantic ancient city.

I forgot who founded it, but it was taken over by the Hiteites, the Sumarians, the Ionians, the Aegeans, the Greeks, the Romans, the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Cats, the Dogs, the Turks – and now finally, the Tourists.

What’s left of this ancient city is amazing. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago the place was just left abandoned. The nearby river, that had provided the city with it’s commerce and drinking water, had silted up and become useless, and I guess everyone just up and took off.

I can’t imagine why they would have done that. The infrastructure that was established in the city was amazing for it’s time. Running water, an underground sewage system, a huge ampitheater that could seat 20,500 people, a smaller one that could seat 3,000, giant water storage tanks, temples to gods and goddesses, hundreds of statues, roads paved in marble, a three story library (unheard of in that time), tombs of rulers, etc.

But without the river, I guess they just moved on, and the place remained basically untouched for hundreds of years.

Enter the beginnings of the tourist market and the Turkish government. They gated off the whole area and charged 40 million Turkish lire to get in. That’s only like $7, but it still makes me nervous signing the credit card reciept when it has on it a number like 40,000,000.00. Jeeeeez.

The Turkish countryside around Ephesis looks remarkably like Montana, and I felt really welcomed and safe today in Turkey. The store keepers were aggressive (“Come my friend! I make you good price!”), but if you ignore them, they go away.

At 5:00 three explosions rang out, who knows what they are from, sounded like rifles. I’m sure that you can imagine my first reaction to gunshots in Turkey. Everyone ducked. Who knows what they were from, but nobody seemed to pay much attention, the locals just acted like everything was normal. I still don’t have any idea what those explosions were, but I got the hell on the ship and didn’t ask any questions.

Despite those slightly unnerving sounds, I repeat that Turkey today seemed as safe as any other city in Europe, the people spoke better English, and everything cost about half what it does elsewhere. I wish we were going back!