Ephesus

I wasn't planning to do any tourism here, but Steve had board meetings this afternoon, and ancient Ephesus was only ten minutes away...

After lunch three busloads of us took off for what was once the second largest city in the Roman Empire.

I felt guilty the whole time because my friend Liisa Eyerly has written a mystery novel set in first-century Ephesus. She had long been planning a research trip, but the week before departure came down with Covid. She's the one who should be here, not me. But Liisa, I thought of you and took lots of pictures!

The weather was threatening all afternoon. Our windshield was splattered with rain on the way, but it never actually rained while we were there.

The main business street leads down to the Celsus Library, originally a mausoleum in the early second century.

The library is the most impressive facade in the city.

But the most impressive structure is undoubtedly the amphitheater, which seats 25,000 people. It now gets used for concerts. (The acoustics are incredible!) But in the first century it was the scene of a riot when Saint Paul preached the gospel and Demetrius the silversmith drew thousands into the theater shouting, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" for two hours because he was worried about his loss of business selling images of Diana if too many people became Christians. Paul was arrested for starting the riot and hauled off to jail in the fortress at the top of the hill in the distance. At the time, that was across the harbor, safe from the crowd. But the harbor long ago silted up, and the Aegean is now several miles away in front of our hotel.

I saw this design scrawled in the pavement in a couple different places. It is a game board, but also purported to be an alternative to the fish as a secret symbol for Christ--overlapping Greek letters spelling ichthos--Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.

Of course, all tour buses have to show up at a shopping spot before the end. This porcelain shop had beautiful stuff I could neither afford nor fit in my luggage, What I would most have liked is one of these horn-shaped pieces. When the salesman put his phone in the small end, the music was amplified like an old-fashioned gramophone. Look, Ma! No batteries!

Tomorrow we head home. I'm looking forward to my own bed and my own (simple) food instead of the overwhelming choices we have had here. But I will miss the selection of Turkish sweets.