Turkey Day 15 - Exploring around Ephesus

Storks living on a Roman Aqueduct in the centre of town !

Today is a busy day doing lots of little things after the big visit to Ephesus yesterday. First up was an accidental shutting and locking the bedroom door to the room Grandma & Robin are sleeping in so no-one can get in which caused a big drama. I dropped of Julianne and Luke to find the owner while I visited the Grotto of Seven Sleepers; nothing to get excited about -  it just is an old necropolis which is all fenced off.

I took a few photos and then headed into the centre of Selcuk to see how Julianne was going.

I couldn’t find her but did find the ruins of a Roman aqueduct which had storks nesting in. This I found really brilliant and very cool – Storks nesting in the centre of a town in the ruins of a Roman aqueduct – you couldn’t invent this stuff – brilliant to see.

Storks on Roman aqueduct in the centre of Selcuk.

I eventually found poor Julianne sitting out the front of a shut shop, she had been waiting an hour and they were not there. So I picked her up and we went back to the cottage and e-mailed the owner, who turned up 5 minutes after we got the door unlocked ourselves. We got in by pushing the key onto the floor inside the locked room and Julianne used the branch of a tree to wiggle it through the bottom of the door so we could grab it. So much for a relaxing morning but at least Grandma & Robin now have access to their room.

After giving Grandma a chance to get dressed, she and I went on our own up to the Basilica of St John & Ayssuluk Fortress – which are together at the top of Selcuk. As I mentioned yesterday Jesus’s apposite John moved to Ephesus to escape prosecution and wrote his Testament on this hill and is buried here. As such a large Basilica was built here. Unfortunately earthquakes have destroyed most of it.

Nosy Grandma

Old way of being baptisedwhole body submersion.

Exploring Grandma

Where St John is supposed to be buried.

Grandma looking up at the Basilica of St John.

There was not a lot left of the castle at the top of the hill; Ayasuluk Fortress. And a lot of the walls have been restored.

Ayasuluk Fortress and Grandma looking down below.

After the castle I went down the hill to see Isa Bey Camii, a mosque built in 1375 – which I think is the earliest purpose built mosque I have ever seen and very different, like a large hall. I enjoyed visiting this quiet mosque and luckily no tourist buses.

Isa Bey Camii

Then Grandma and I headed back to the cottage which was only 100meters away for lunch with the rest of the family. Julianne has prepared a great left over lunch which was yummy and a great way to save money – plus having toast with locally brought jam which had huge chunks of strawberries in it – very yummy.

After lunch I headed out on my own to the Ephesus Museum which was only 200 meters down the road. The museum was modern and well done showing statues from the areas of Ephesus that I visited yesterday and also had early stone and bronze age items. All quite interesting and not to large so I was only 90 minutes.

No doubt expensive items from inside the Terraces Houses which I enjoyed yesterday.

Very cool early pottery – from 1400BC, so it almost 3500 years old.

Very near little female statue from 580BC.

Detailed bronze head from around 200AD.

What real Roman armour would have looked like.

Remains of what was a huge statue of an Emperor.

Unusual statues of Artemis.

Back the cottage I picked up Grandma, Robin & Luke and we headed out to Sirince – an old Greek village now populated by Turks after the big swap in the 1920’s. It was very commercial and lots of shops selling the same things I have seen over the last couple of weeks. I am so glad we are not staying here, that is for sure.

Leaving the commercial part of Sirince to see what’s in behind all the shops.

Finally after a bit of exploring Grandma and I found ourselves behind the shops in the 200 year old houses. I stumbled apron a house where there was a sign saying that you could see the inside for a single Lira - which is 50 NZ cents. There was nothing on the ground floor.

Grandma in the living room on the top floor.

A surprise, an antique roof.

Bedroom.

It was interesting to see how they live where from the outside there were gaps in the plaster and inside stairwells had a distinct lean but there was still a new fridge & TV. Very small and quite rustic. I wonder what it’s like in winter.

Then it was back to the cottage arriving around 4-30 with tea being left over’s from last night. Tonight sitting on the roof with a view onto the castle – very nice.

Eating on the roof.