Ephesus

Day 1 in Turkey was the ancient city of Ephesus! According to the tour guide, Ephesus was one of the largest cities in the ancient world after Rome and Alexandria, Egypt. In Turkey, Ephesus would be considered an "old city", as opposed to a city that's just a few hundred years old. (I don't know if I remember writing somewhere that America doesn't have many "old" places as compared to Europe, but I sure remember thinking it. Well, Turkey has had civilizations for longer than most of Europe, so its cities and sites are even older. I think the guide said that one of the cities we're going to is over 9,000 years old!)

St. Paul visited Ephesus on several occasions, and he spent some time working and ministering there. At the end of one of his stays, some silversmiths who made money by selling little statuettes of Artemis of the Ephesians (who's a little different from Artemis of the rest of the Greco-Roman world) instigated a riot against him that ended up in the theater.

There are tons of pictures, so there will be several posts. Here are the first set of pictures.

This is at the upper entrance of the city. Ephesus is built in between two hills, and you can see one of them in this shot.

The next group of pictures are from the State Agora. An agora in a Greek city was generally an open area where people could gather and where people could usually find some kind of marketplace. This one, however, was used for citizens to gather and discuss the issues of the city, so it didn't have a marketplace. 

This is the road leading alongside the State Agora. As per our guide, the columns would have had a roof over them.

The next pictures are from the Bouleterion. It looks like a theater, but it was really where the city's government would hold council.

The entrance

Looking back towards the State Agora

Here's the inside

Incidentally, our guide told us that the entrance we came in was not the entrance all the statesmen would have used. They would have used that tunnel in the upper left.

If you've ever opened a textbook about Ancient Greece, you've probably heard about Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian pillars. For those who haven't, Doric stylings around the upper part of the column are very plain; Ionic got a little fancier and used those cinnamon-roll-looking swirls; and Corinthian stylings were very fancy, like the one in the middle

This is from an outlook overlooking the rest of the city.

That terrace, which is the grassy part over the top of those arches, is from Domitian's Temple. Domitian was very unpopular, and after he was murdered, his temple became another temple for his father.

Domitian's Temple from another angle.

Look at the detail on this!

Domitian's Temple again

As per our guide, this was the Greek goddess Nike, the goddess of victory. The wreath she's holding in her hand is what would be given to the victor.

See the detail in the carving here.

That's it for now - more to come in a little bit!