I know the number of photos doesn’t really indicate how big of a day I’ve had, but given I’m not a Chinese tourist, it’s not a bad indication… today’s total from both devices was…
… 1003 photos. Dang. No wonder my Sony HX90 was nearly flat and I’d done a good job on the portable pack keeping my iPhone alive.
Only 88 of those were on the iPhone, so the Sony has been doing a great job so far. It’s up to 2993 photos stored and about 50 deleted since I left Brisbane 12 days ago.
On to the story! A pretty relaxed start to the morning, and off to the Ephesus museum to get a primer on the site before we left. I won’t profess to having a clue about anything I saw, but I was directed to a few pieces and was suitably awed by everything there. The level of skill in craftsmanship is quite spectacular.
Owing to the sheer number of photos of items in the Ephesus Museum and other sites today, combined with the spectacularly slow bandwidth I’ve got available, I’m going to have to go back and make a gallery of images from today when I get home to slightly faster upload speeds…
Of course, there’s the mandatory photo of Priapus…
Here’s a tiny sculpture dating from 580BC of a goddess.
And a post about Ephesus couldn’t be complete without Artemesia’s twin statues, unearthed in the ancient city and showing truly incredible levels of carved detail. Dating from the first and second centuries BC, it’s truly a testament to the craftsmen of that time.
Second century statue
Of course there’s load more pictures, but as I said there’s too many for a single post and definitely not on the available bandwidth. Ok, one more, a blue glass platter. Exquisite colouring.
After the museum we headed to Julia’s lovely Moon Light Silver Shop in the main street, a fantastic shop full of a variety of locally made wares. She’s clear from the moment you walk in where things are made, there’s some cheaper items which come from places like China and Iran, but everything else is Turkish made so you aren’t buying knock offs.
We saw some lovely pieces and got a run down on a stone they call Zultanite. After a little post-shopping research it turns out it’s a trademarked name of a particular type of mineral which has lovely colour changing effects in different light sources. This is perfect for selling to tourists since the best way to show off the effect is to hand them a box full of samples, or a big item, and get them to walk around marvelling at it, creating attachment as they move. :)
Next we tried to go to a museum of local cultural history, created by the people of the city with their individual pieces of work, sadly it was closed on Sunday so instead we had a lovely walk around the city and stopped for lunch at Tat. I ordered a pide, but it turned out after my meal had arrived that their pide chef hadn’t turned up, so the chef had gone down the street to a friend’s shop and got something for me from there. Amazing service as always, and a love of it too.
On the way out to Ephesus we had a few stops, one was at the former site of the Temple of Artemis, a UNESCO registered site. Sadly for us, there’s not much left, but from the information there you can understand the size of the temple and its rough layout. I finally found a vendor who sold me a hat, and had a truly spectacularly aggressive guy try to sell me a book about the site. I understand it’s tough making a buck in this place, but I swear if he’d been any more aggressive with throwing offers and deals at me, he’d probably have ended up in the bus.
We were taken to a local leather goods manufacturer (Tolar / Tol & Ar leather land) and watched a lovely little fashion show. Given there was only four of us sitting at the end of the runway and five models on stage it was hilariously awkward, but the tables were turned when they pulled the oh-so-cheerful Ruwan out and made him model for us :)
I’ve been pondering a nice jacket for a long time and was talked into buying a lovely brown “vintage” jacket after playing the negotiation game for a while. It’s made of lamb’s leather, which is light and soft and incredibly thin and lovely.
Then it was time for the main part of the day, the Ancient city of Ephesus.
Wow. We spent a little over three hours there and only covered the main parts, with dense but limited explanations of the main parts.
The Terrace houses were an extra 20TL but if nothing else, I thought the $6AUD was worth it for half an hour or so out of the blazing afternoon sun. This grossly undervalues their beauty and importance as a part of the historical record. The number of frescos and mosaics and construction methods and other well-preserved items in this very small area of the city are spectacular and are being expanded on constantly.
After that it was the Celcus library which has been restored somewhat to its former glory. If my library looked one tenth as amazing as this when I visited, I’d be there every day to learn more. Thankfully not, so I’ll just have to absorb my knowledge from the internet or something. :)
Next, the truly epic theatre of Ephesus, which we had seen from a few kilometers away during our approach from the last stop. The amphitheater is truly imposing, seating approximately twenty-five thousand people and providing a perfect place for the production of fantastic shows.
As I’ve mentioned a few times there’s nowhere near enough bandwidth to post the number of amazing photos I want to from today, so I’ll just have to do a new post later with better access.
After a quick freshen up; did I mention it was hot today? We were off to Sirince, a smallish village known for their fruit wines and olive products. The road to the town winds backwards and forwards through the hills, and suddenly you’re in the main street of a tiny place packed with markets and people. We wandered around a bit and then had fun tasting wines at a local bottle shop. Cherry and Pomegranate dessert wines have truly curious flavours, with a citrus after-tang due to the pressing process.
Bought a bottle of Muscato and … another red wine which I can’t remember, then we were back to Tat Restaurant for a lovely dinner of stuffed Aubergine and kebap. I’m completely stuffed, and my brain is reeling from all the amazing ruins of today.