Visting History .. 3. . Ephesus

IZMIR is the second largest port in Turkey after Istanbul and is considered one of Turkey's most vibrant cities because of its dynamism and progressive values, that include female empowerment . Throughout its history, it has attracted various kinds of foreign influx and has absorbed multifarious influences to create for itself a pan european character. Appropriately, its logo proclaims :"Rediscover Life". The old Greek name for Izmir Province was SMYRNA . Yes, the same place where Homer was born.
We did not visit places related to medieval history in this province, but headed straight to Ephesus of The Classical Period.

Camp: Kusadasi. It is a resort town, with buildings that look like freshly painted doll houses and smooth narrow roads running up and down in steep gradients along prettily done up pavements.(Hotel : Dabaklar. unusual location : bang in the middle of a green produce market , abutting the bus station! Interior ambience and amenities : quite OK.)
The ancient Greco Roman city of EPHESUS can take the better part of a day to explore. It is a city restored from salvaged ruins, giving us a good idea of what life in a Hellenistic Metro was like. By 1 BC, it was the second largest city of Imperial Roman Empire, where Education and Art were much valued and women held in great esteem.
Its patron deity was the Huntress, the Mother Goddess ARTEMIS ( aka Diana ), who had her biggest temple erected here. That magnificent Temple, famed as one of The Wonders Of The Ancient World, is today reduced to a single pillar, assembled from broken pieces, standing forlorn in an expanse of marshy grassland....... When we viewed it, a lonely stork sat atop the headless coloumn, brooding over its messy nest of black twigs.

Not all structures met such a pitiful end. The city walls, the mozaic paved boulevards, the Marble Sacred Road, the treasuries and the baths ( and lavatories ) have been put together in reasonably good order . The most impressive structure is the facade of The Library of Celsus, ( built in 125 AD) the third biggest library of the ancient world , that contained 12,000 scrolls from all parts of the "known world". Within its premises is located the tomb of St.John, the Apostle.

The other noteworthy remnants are the handsome arches of Temple of Hadrian and The Gate of Augustus.

The Amphitheatre, supposedly the largest of its time with a seating capacity of 44,000 , has an unfortunate recent history. Having bravely withstood some historical earthquakes, it reportedly suffered the collapse of a complete wing after an energetic Rock Music concert by STING staged within it a few years ago !

Among the sculptures still left in situ, is one of NIKE, in a flying posture, the very form which is supposed to have inspired the famous "whoosh" logo of the celebrated sportswear brand. (Nike's sister Tike adorns the gate of Hadrian).

The museum houses many of the larger sculptures found intact. The most impressive are the huge marble idol of Artemis and the 6ft. hand of an emperor, of whom only a de-nosed face remains. It must have been a respectable giant of a statue in its time.

The guide also pointed out to us what could be the world's oldest signpost. A marble slab showing an foot pointing the way, beside which can be seen the face of a woman and two coins. Needless to say , this graphic ad. showed the way to a brothel !

EPHESUS was an important city in the annals of Early Christianity. It is one of The Seven Churches eulogised in the book of "Revelation." The legend of 'The Seven Sleepers' ( Believers who escaped Roman persecution by sleeping in a cave for centuries) took place in this city. Paul the Apostle is said to have lived here.


The most revered site, though, is the House Of Virgin Mary, situated 7 kms away from the archeological site, atop a wonderfully cool and verdant hill, Mt.Koressos (called Bulbuldagi - Nightingale Hill- in Turkish.) It is believed that after The Crucifixion, St. John took the Mother to live in the stone house till her ascent to Heaven. Called Meryemana Evi in Turkish, the place was considered holy by early pagans as well, and later by Muslims too. It is a very peaceful and comforting place with a mountain brook gurgling by it, sprays of wild blossoms and varieties of birds and butterflies flitting around.

The present stone house is built over the original one with a russet line showing the demarcation between the ages. A very pagan custom of tying scraps of cloth and paper carrying wishes , on to trees and walls is still observed here.
I observed that tourists who are usually noisy elsewhere, automatically drop their voices to whispers here !
I just loved Meryemana.

Comments

Lakshmi said…
It was an interesting read. Naneno Indianalli maatra harake katkondu batte kattare ankonde ri....
YOSEE said…
LG : Copyright is ours ! Namma deshadindale ee ritual aa kadege saagithu antha namma guide helidaru ! Around 1 AD, most regions in Asia Minor, Asia and Far East had the same (or similar) Pagan beliefs.
JC said…
Hi Yosee! As a student of civil engineering, I have enjoyed your 'Visiting History' series and seen nice pictures of the remnants of edifices that reflect the grandeur of an old but advanced civilisation ...

My first and the third daughter, both are graphic designers, and it's the third one who alone has visited Istanbul, Turkey, and some other places, in connection with some exhibitions in the late Nineties perhaps...That's why my attention was particularly attracted to the words at one place, "...A marble slab showing an foot pointing the way, beside which can be seen the face of a woman and two coins. Needless to say , this graphic ad. showed the way to a brothel!"

('An foot' must be a typing error I believe.)
Indrani said…
That was sad reading about the recent damage to the amphitheater, but they did build to last. Great virtual tour, surely a worthwhile place to visit and soak in history.
JC said…
Yosee, After learning that our solar system, which includes our earth too, is over 4 billion years in age. And that our still older Milky Way Galaxy that holds it in its periphery is a mature one, which in the beginning would have appeared like a thin plate. But, in the present it appears like a disc that is thick at the centre and thin at the edges. Thus, with this background, I am able to visualise a stepped amphitheatre as a scalar model of a mature galaxy (and similarly all present day cricket stadiums too, unknown to us humans about it!)...

On the other hand, it is also known that no 'man-made structure' has so far been observed to last for more than a few thousand years, eg, the pyramids in Egypt...[I remember to have read at some place that remnants of a 12,500 year-old structure were discovered, perhaps in South America (?), as one of the oldest such man-made structure]...
History thus can take us into the past only a few thousand years ago...But, still we can enjoy it!
YOSEE said…
Indrani : So true, you can soak in history here because every single stone and pebble has an interesting tale to tell.
You will surely enjoy visiting.
YOSEE said…
JC : I can understand how interesting remnants of old structures can be to civil engineering students. There's so much to learn about the evolution of architectural techniques.

Your Graphic Designer daughters will surely find more to marvel at in Egypt ! ( Thanks for pointing out the Typo. But I am too lazy to edit the mistake now !! :-) )

That was an interesting analogy between galaxies and amphitheaters.

RE: man made structures, I think the simple dolmens from Megalithic and Mesolithic ages that are being excavated in South India are older than pyramids. There was news of one discovery this morning too. Yes,archeology is always fascinating.
JC said…
Yosee, Thanks for the info on dolmens in South India, which I find are reportedly discovered in Kerala, districts of Ernakulam and Idukki etc. And also it's learnt that the region traded with Egypt in the past and thus they must have exchanged thoughts with each other on different practices... It is interesting particularly because I came across some Keralite engineer colleagues in the late seventies who had worked in the Idukki High Arch-dam project!
Satyask said…
Hi yosee! did not know you could read comments in foreign languages..

I enjoyed this narrative.

You could put all your series into a word doc and upload it into scribd like a book.

People can print it out like a coffee table book with such lovely pictures!
YOSEE said…
Satya : Thrilled that you think my pieces are Coffee Table worthy ! :-)

Popular posts from this blog

From here to there........transporting

TRANQUEBAR OF THE DANES

A mysterious Hero of Many Names