A Seventh Wonder

The ship pulled into Kusadasi, Turkey at about 7 AM Monday morning. Off the port side was an island, with a causeway peppered with fishing boats med-moored (aft tied to the causeway with an anchor off the bow for stability). It’s called Bird Island and is how Kusadasi got it’s name. (Kusa=bird, das=island, Kusadasi) We watched the tug and pilot boats off the beam as we had coffee in our stateroom; our tour was leaving early so we opted for room service today.

Kusadasi is a summer resort on the Aegean, which fills with tourists going to the ruins of Ephesus, a city founded five different times and considered upon it’s completion to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Initially the Amazons, female warriors whose archery skills were so important they removed one of their breasts to accommodate their bowstrings, settled Ephesus. The second time in the 11th century BC when an oracle advised Androklos to establish a city on the site of a fish and a boar. On his arrival there was a fish fry happening, and a fish jumped from the pan spreading coals that set fire to a thicket where a boar was hiding. Androklos killed the boar and the prophecy had been realized, so the city was built. Fish and pork, what else could you possibly need? The third time the city was established by Heraclitus around 500 BC; he developed the theory of the human soul. Each time the city had a working harbor, now it is 3 miles from the water, having been filled in by silt from the Kaistros River. The ruins today are from the Roman imperial period and include gymnasia, the Great Theater, the Odeon, the Terrace Houses, a commercial Agora, the Hercules Gate, the Temple of Hadrian, and the Celsius Library (connected to a brothel by a tunnel – you know some guy just needed a believable excuse to get out of the house).

The grounds also include the Council Church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary and made into a basilica in the 2nd century AD. The legend is that the Virgin Mary spent her last days in Ephesus, brought there by St. John in AD 37, and died there is AD 48. The German nun Anna Catherine Emmerick, who never left her convent, saw her house in a vision. Three Popes have visited the site, though it has never been established if Mary lived there for sure, and if so where she is buried. St. John is buried beneath the nearby Basilica of St. John. St. Paul was a missionary in Ephesus and was imprisoned atop a hill that can be seen from the ruins. These Ephesians weren’t ready to give up their goddess Artemis quite yet, so off Paul goes to the slammer. Obviously these sites are of special importance to the world’s Christians.

Once again the ingenuity of the past civilizations was impressive: frescos, mosaics, statuary, marble roads, aqueducts, and sewer systems were in evidence. But the common, unisex latrines were a bit strange. The slaves would sit on the cold marble seats to warm them until someone needed to go. What the hell did someone have to do in a past life to come back to that job? That gives bad karma a whole new meaning. They even had musicians playing outside the latrines so the noise from your neighbor wouldn’t be as obvious. And no toilet paper, only sea sponges. Victoria told me there are some nasty things living in sea sponges. Well, I guess everybody has to die of something.

The site was impressive. And crowded. 10,000 people will visit the site everyday, and I was taken by how clean it was with very little litter and nice facilities. And lots of cats. The only area of the ruins I found unsettling was the 25,000 seat Great Theater. Christians who didn’t renounce their faith were sacrificed to lions, and Gladiators fought in this arena. From the stands you could see the opening from which they’d release the lions. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

We’ll be returning to Ephesus tonight as the cruise line is sponsoring a classical concert in the Odeon after dinner. No beasts killed innocents at this amphitheater, senators met there. Well, same thing, I guess.
I’m sure the site will be stunning after dark and the music lovely.

On our way back to the boat we managed to snag some baklava. Several countries fight over the rights to baklava invention. I don’t really care, but for the record Turkey’s is awesome.