Sunday Oct 21, 2012 – Izmir, Turkey and Ephesus

I was feeling good about getting out of Istanbul without having to drag a new carpet around with me for the rest of the trip. But yesterday I realized I did take something away from the rug shop, a nasty head cold. But I think we’ve managed through the worst of it.

On Sunday we pulled into Izmir, in Southwest Turkey, an Asian port on the Mediterranean that many people have never heard of; its original name was Smyrna. The city has around 4 million people living in and around it, but the main reason for our stop there was to explore the nearby ancient city of Ephesus.

I can’t say I ever heard of Ephesus before planning our trip, but Mary got excited when she saw it on the itinerary. She’s been reading about it in National Geographic magazines since she was a kid. It was founded around 2,000 BC and was occupied by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans and more over the centuries.

During the Roman age it had 250,000 people there and it’s thought that St Paul and St John the Apostle both lived and wrote in the city for significant periods of their lives. It’s also believed that the Blessed Mother moved here after the death of Jesus and lived in Ephesus until she died (maybe she started the taxi service for some extra pocket change). After the Roman period, the city was abandoned, covered over by dirt and sand over the years and almost forgotten. Excavations were only started a little more than 100 years ago.

To get there, our tour bus drove south of Izmir about for about an hour, through small farms growing olives, figs, hazel nuts, pistachios and all kinds of fruit including citrus. Around the ancient city gates there were the expected groups of people selling to tourists, looking at the signs around town, some of them seemed to have a sense of humor.

We left Izmir around 7:00 PM headed for Athens the next morning.