Friday in Kusadasi ( Ephesus)

It is Friday and we are now in the port city of Kusadasi, Turkey, the gateway to Ephesus. We have a private tour set up this morning.

The group down on deck 5 and we left the ship together, meeting our guide on the pier. She is about 60, speaks very good English and is very personable. She studied English in England and taught English in Turkey and is very proud of her country.

St. John's Tomb

We first drove to St. John’s Church. St. John, is the youngest and the most beloved of the apostles. He was educated by John the Baptist and became one of the first disciples. He was called “the Son of Thunder” by Jesus. On the cross, Jesus saw his mother and John standing side by side and he said” Woman, here is you son.” (John 19: 26-27) John left Jerusalem, taking Mary with him. John came to Ephesus between 37 and 40 AD. It is believed that he brought Mary with him. Her house is located in the hills above Ephesus. St. John’s tomb is located here and the church was built on top of it. You can still see the tomb in the ruins of the church. It is believed that St. John established the first Christian community in Ephesus. John lived here from 54 AD, and died here. He wrote his Gospel, while living in Ephesus, between 95 and 100 BC. Scholars say that John’s Gospel differs on several points from the others. First, John tells about a different time period. Secondly, John uses solid narration instead of using symbolic narration. Thirdly, the events are told in chronological order and details are emphasized and commented on in a theological and systemic way. The church is in ruins of course, but you can still see where different parts of the church were located. The baptistery is still there, his grave is there and the general outline of the church is still visible.

From St. Johns church we went up into the hills to Mary’s house. There is nothing unusual about the house, except that it is quite subdued. It is quite there, even with crowds around. There is an altar inside, but the whole house is very small. There are two rooms about 8X12 each.
Leaving Mary’s house we drove to Ephesus. At one time Ephesus replaced Smyrna as the commercial capital of Asia Minor. The port silted up in the 3rd century and that ended its rule. Ephesus had a huge temple to house the statue of the multi-breasted goddess, called Artemis, a popular and powerful symbol of fertility. When Paul came to Ephesus to preach, a local silversmith caused quite a stir in the market place tailing against the new religion. Crying that Artemis was the true goddess and Christianity will ruin us. Stirring up the people, he had 20,000 of them shouting this in the great theater. He was not so much a religious fanatic as he was a business man. The people made pilgrimages to Ephesus to worship the goddess Artemis. The silversmiths made small statues, the merchants sold trinkets and food and lodging. If this new religion happened, they would lose the Artemis trade.

Paul built on the work of John and established the Ephesian church. The church was led by St. John until his death. He is the only apostle to die a natural death. With St. John’s leadership Ephesus became the third most important city of Christianity after Jerusalem and Antioch. When Paul arrived the Bible says that he went to the Jewish synagogue to preach first. The location of the Jewish synagogue is still not known.

Continuing with Ephesus we wandered all over the place. The picture most associated with Ephesus is of the Library of Celsus. It was built around 117 AD as a monumental tomb for Julius Celsus Polemeanus by his son. The tomb is in front of the Library. It was the third largest library in the old world after Alexander and (darn if I can remember the other one). We saw the Latrina, the House of Love, and advertisements for it. We saw the Odeion, which is a small theatre were the Senate also met. The Senate was an advisory council of 34. They made recommendations and the Demos (sp) voted on it. They met at the Theatre, which could hold 24,000 people, to vote on the recommendations. From the group called Demos (sp) we get our term Democracy. I mentioned the Latrina earlier. It was a 16 holer that was for public use. No stalls.
 We toured the Terrace Houses. These were like our condominiums. They were for the well off folks. They had sewers, hot and cold running water, atriums for sunlight and nice tile floors, frescos on the walls and lots of room. One we saw had a cauldron for heating water that ran under the floor and down the inside of the walls of a bathroom to heat it.

There is so much history here that I cannot do it justice in this short space. We had lunch at a rug factoryand sat through a presentation of how the rugs are made. They are beautiful, but out of my price range. They take 3 to 8 months to weave. It is a dying art that they are trying to bring back.


Returned to the ship after a long day looking at history. We both were not very hungry, so we had a pizza, relaxed, and called it a night.


Tomorrow is Mykonos Hope it does not rain.