Ephesus and Less

Today I saw Ephesus and more, except everything else was lesser than Ephesus. Hence the title.

If I only saw Ephesus on this trip, it was worth the long journey from Mexico.

Kuşadası

Kuşadası is the seaside resort about twenty minutes away from Ephesus. It’s where the cruise ships come in, where all the hotels and restaurants are, and where there’s a pretty view of the Aegean Sea and the Greek island of Samos.

And it’s where I’m staying.

Here are my photos of Kuşadası. There’s really not much more to say about this city.

Mary’s House

It wasn’t supposed to by funny, but I couldn’t help laughing. I tried to keep it inside.

There’s this stone house up at the top of a hill by Ephesus. A German nun named Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774–1824) supposedly had a vision, described in a book written by Clemens Brentano, a German poet who visited her before her death. The book, The Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the Visions of Anna Catherine Emmerich, was published in 1852, 10 years after Brentano’s death.

In the book is a description of the location of the house where Mary lived at the end of her life, before the Assumption. In the 1860s, using the description in the book, the remains of a house were discovered.

The house has since been rebuilt, and it is considered a holy place. You can parade through the house, in one door and out another, in about 30 seconds. Nothing inside suggests what it might have looked like when, or if, Mary actually lived there. 

You can drink or wash with holy water nearby. You can leave a wish on a retaining wall outside. And you can eat in the café on the grounds nearby. Any many people do all these things. It was very busy, and the parking lot was packed with tour buses.

Three popes have visited. The Vatican has not endorsed the authenticity of the house or of the story in the book. But it is regarded as a holy place. 

I found the whole thing to be eye-roll-inducing.

Ephesus

(Incidentally, I only today put 2+2 together and realized that the Ephesians of Paul’s letters in the Bible were the people of Ephesus. If the city were called Ephesia, or if the people were called Ephesusians, I’d have gotten it right away.)

I don’t think I need to write much about the history of Ephesus. I’ll just say how stunning I found the site to be. Although it is almost entirely reconstructed, it’s so impressive that so much of the city was preserved and discovered. I was amazed that the reconstruction brought the city back to life.

I am also stunned at the thought of the work still ahead. As much as has been discovered, there is probably more left to excavate and identify and restore than has already been completed. There are probably hundreds of years of work still to be done.

Here are my pictures from Ephesus (plus some of the lesser stuff).

The Temple of Artemis

Near Ephesus is what’s left of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It’s essentially one column, plus some marble remnants lying helter-skelter on the ground. The photos I took are in the same photo album with everything from Ephesus.

The really lesser stuff

We also visited a food shop where we got to taste local olive oil, halvah, and Turkish delight.

And we visited a leather goods company, and we got a brief fashion show before being let loose in the enormous showroom. We didn’t stay long.

Our guide, Huseyin, said we could also go to a carpet place, but we all declined.

“We all,” by the way, was me plus Steve and Rachel, the same Canadian couple I toured with in Istanbul on Day Two and Day Three. And maybe I’ll run into them yet again before I finish my time in Turkey.