Day 11 (Continued)

However, mob scene aside, I must say, the ruins were worth it. I was expecting something like Knossos. If you've ever been there, you would know what I mean. Knossos has few original ruins left, and so some idiots decided to try and "reconstruct" the whole thing, which makes the visit there virtually useless. While there were some "replacements" at Ephesus, for the most part the actual ruins, and in particular the facade of the library (the third largest in the ancient world after Babylonia and Pergamon), were awe inspiring. And there has been sufficient excavation, particularly of the roads, to get a real sense of how the city was laid out. Mark and I shelled out $10 for a guide and it was well worth the money.

After about two hours exploring and listening to our guide, Mark and I took a taxi to the other site in Selcuk--the Virgin Mary's house. Now, I must say, this was not my idea, but Mark is a rather devout Catholic and really wanted to make the pilgrimage. Supposedly, what we saw was the house in which Mary lived out her final days. Actually, a reconstruction of the house, but built on the original foundations, per our guidebook. So Mark did his candle lighting thing, and we returned to the ruins at Ephesus.

By this time, somewhat late in the afternoon, most of the hordes of tourists, following their guides with little flags, had left and the ruins were blissfully empty with the exception of a few individual travelers like me and Mark. And it made a huge difference, so much so that Mark and I made sure to walk slowly through the ruins yet again before catching a dolmus back to Selcuk where we had lunch and visited the local museum.[p> And what a museum! The busts and the statuary, all of which had come to Ephesus, were exquisite, like I've never seen before. And they were displayed wonderfully with lighting that even the Met would be jealous of.

Finally, at 4 p.m., we grabbed what we thought was a dolmus back to Izmir, but instead it left us off in some suburb. So I became a quick study and figured out the local bus system (which wasn't easy, mind you), and got us exactly where we wanted to be, at the bazaar in the center of town. It was one of my proud independent traveler moments, I must say.

written by  shoshtrvls on June 12, 1996 from Selcuk, Turkey
from the travel blog: Turkey and Greece (1996)
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