Fascinating Ephesus

Hello all!
We’re on the bus now, from Selcuk (Ephesus) to Pamukkale. No internet obviously, but I don’t know when we’ll have it, so I’m writing now.
Yesterday was a free day; Prof. Shields promised we wouldn’t have to get up before 11. So we decided to start our day at 8. I mean, we were in Selcuk/Ephesus for one day, and there’s a lot to do, as you’ll see.
Stop #1 was, obviously, the city of Ephesus itself. One of the largest and most important cities of antiquity, Ephesus is now the site of some of the best preserved Greek and Roman ruins on Earth. The Greek city went through the hands of countless invaders (Lydians, Persians, Alexander the Great, Rome, Arabs, Turks…), but continued to flourish until a final conqueror appeared on the scene: environmental change. Ephesus, like most other great cities of the classical world, was a port city. In the second century AD, however, the rivers that fed into the harbor began to change course, filling the city with silt. The Romans were able to stave off the inevitable for a while, but by the fifth century, the wide harbor had been transformed into a malarial swamp; today, the sea is 7km away from Ephesus’ ‘harbor road’. By the time the Ottomans arrived in the 14^th century, a ragtag village was all that survived of the great city. Still, the city is of great importance, especially for Christians: Paul was here and two ecumenical councils were held here.
It’s kind of unreal to go through the site, passing the same buildings (or foundations of them anyways) and walking down the same streets that existed two millennia ago. I won’t recount every single building, statue, and engraving, but here are a couple pictures:

Hey lil Ephesian kitty!

For William, all Ephesus' a stage

There were several huge, beautiful storks in the hills around the site

The most important extant building in Ephesus is the Celsus Library, built in the second century AD

The columns and ceiling carvings are particularly beautiful

The theater, which could hold 44,000, or about twice the capacity of the Dean Dome
One commodity for which ancient Ephesus was famous is still sold here:

Genuine fake watches. God, this place was so touristy.
After Ephesus, we took a 20 minute drive into the mountains to see the House of the Virgin Mary. Yeah, I was confused too- this is where she lived at the end of her life. Evidently, after Jesus' death, John brought Mary with him to Ephesus (where he is buried). In the 19^th century, a blind German nun who’d never been to Ephesus described the area with remarkable accuracy, and said that Mary’s house was here; expeditions later in the century found the house as she’d described it, and the Pope’s visit here in 1967 confirmed its authenticity for most Christians. It’s a place of significant devotion; not as much as some of the Islamic tombs we’ve seen, but still very powerful.

The house where the Mother of God lived.
Next stop was the Ephesus museum. It's pretty small, but has a good number of interesting objects. Not as many as you might think though, because many of the objects discovered here were transported to European museums. It's a common, and for Turks unfortunate, phenomenon. For example, in Pergamum, the stunning, 40m+ frieze from the altar of Zeus was removed entirely in the 19th century; it's now exhibited in the Pergamum Museum in Berlin. Probably the most interesting piece was the huge votary statue of Artemis:

One of the most important buildings in Ephesus was the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. It was continuously rebuilt and repaired until the fifth century when a Christian mob destroyed it and buried the votive statues. Nothing of this incredible building exists save these few statues.
After the museum, we met up with a family friend of Emily's, Mrs. Gurel, a member of Izmir high society. She took us to meet her equally well-heeled friends at a beautiful lunch spot, where she fed us a delicious meal. Her friends had a very interesting take on the current political situation, at once recognizing the popularity of the AKP and proclaiming how "Turkey will be very happy" when they are banned. (SIDENOTE- for a very interesting article connecting politics and Turkey's recent soccer success, read this). The food and company were great, but we had one more item on our agenda for the afternoon: the BEACH.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of the beach; this is walking up to the lovely Aegean. We had a great time frolicking for a few hours in the waves; maybe not waves by NC standards, but more than we expected and good enough for a least a little body surfing.
The day's final activity was a trip up to a small village in the mountains for dinner. Sirence is billed as a 'Greek village', but no Greeks live there anymore. A mosque has replaced the churches, and you only hear Turkish on the street. Still, the 600 or so inhabitants live a very different life from what we've mostly seen so far. They're geared slightly to tourism, but it appears that most were engaged in agriculture or handicrafts. It was a gorgeous little town in a breathtakingly beautiful setting. I wish I was better at taking pictures:

Well, now it's 11pm on Wednesday; we had another busy day (bet you weren't expecting that) in Pamukkale. Waayyyy to tired to post about it now, hopefully soon. Thanks for reading, and I'll talk to you soon!