Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Ephesus

Mark Here....

What a day. Got up at 5am to catch our flight. Only a 45 minute trip to Izmir. The tour had all been arranged and Cem (pron. Jem) was waiting for us. A personal tour guide for the day. Rain was forecast, but when we got down there all we had was 60 and sun. Cem was very knowledgeable and has been a tour guide in this area for 12 years.

Cem....

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Ephesus used to be a port City. In fact, it was the largest city behind Rome and Antioch. The population was 250,000. These collected a lot of taxes from trade as well as money from the Temple of Artemis. (which was one of the 7 wonders of the world). They had a lot of money in which to build a large and beatiful city.


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This is the library. At the time, it was the second largest library in the world (behind Alexandria) with 20,000 parchments/scrolls.

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This is where the Temple of Artemis once stood. (The lone column in the background)
(see also Acts 19)

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Mandy and I at St. John's Basilica. He is buried there after a long life. According to Cem he lived to be about 90.

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We also went to a leather shop and a pottery shop. This is a very slow time of year for them so they were glad to see us, but then disappointed I am sure we didn't buy anything. Although we did pick up a Christmas ornament for next years tree. These are decorated eggs in the style that has been common to the area for centuries.

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We were very glad to be back to Billy and Elizabeth's after the long day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Canım arkadaşım, it was so great to have you back and able to spend some time together and to be able to meet Mark too. Ahmet Taha is also so happy to meet Mandy abla and Mark abi. I hope your trip back home was safe for both of you. Hope to see you guys again... Love... Melda