A Visit to Ancient Ephesus

In the 1st century BC, Ephesus was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world, with a population of 250,000 people.  It was the capital of the Roman province of Asia, located on the west coast of Turkey, close to all the places the early apostles traveled.  This was a city where the Apostle Paul lived for 2 1/2 years of his life.  And Elder & Sister Davis were on a tour bus headed to that very ancient Greek and later, Roman city. We were very excited!

 Since rain had been predicted, CES leaders had been praying that it wouldn't rain during our tour.  It not only didn't rain....we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. The bus ride took us through beautiful Turkish countryside where olive trees  are prevalent and through several towns where people were showing their patriotism by flying their country's flag.

Homes are built "UP" in Turkey where several generations of family live in the same building. 

And orange trees thrive on city streets in the middle of February.

Today, the ruins of the once great city of Ephesus are a major tourist attraction.  We were lucky to be coming in the off-season...our tour guide said Ephesus is wall-to-wall people in the spring and summer. 

Of course, anywhere you have tourists, you will find market stands.  The Turks make vibrant colorful textiles, lamps and ceramic dishes to sell.

And don't even think of leaving Turkey without buying some "Turkish Delight", a candy that comes in so many different flavors and varieties, it makes  your head spin.

As we get drive through the city of  Selçuk, Turkey, we start to notice some really old buildings.

And start to see ruins....

Ephesus was once a major commercial center for the Greek and Roman Empires, next to the Aegean Sea and located on the main highway to what is now Syria and Iraq.   It was famous throughout the ancient world for its magnificent temple built in honor of the Roman goddess Diana (Ephesians called her Artemis), just like Salt Lake City is famous for it's beautiful temple.

As our bus turns into the parking lot, we quickly realize Ephesus  is just a "shell" of it's former self. This site has been called the largest puzzle in the world. Just a tiny portion of the entire city has been unearthed and it has taken years to put the pieces together into a semblance of it's former glory. The city was completely abandoned in the 15th century.  In 1895, the German archaeologist Otto Benndorf came to Turkey to try and discover the temple of Artemis and was so intrigued with the ruins he got funding from an Austrian financier, and founded the Austrian Archaeological Institute that carries on the work of  recreating Ephesus even today. Where some parts of walls and columns have been damaged (the city was partially destroyed by a large earthquake) concrete is poured to reassemble the pieces together.

This is the Bath of Varius. The arches are blocks of marble. It has three sections, frigidarium (cold water), tepidarium (warm water) and caldarium (hot water). Four bathing rooms are hewn out of bedrock. Pretty advanced for it's day.

The excavations for this area have not been completed yet. 

Below, is the State Agora, or "gathering place", where government leaders came to discuss politics and visit with one another.  In the center of the Agora was a small temple dedicated to Isis (the Egyptian goddess of nature and magic).  Ephesus was like any city today, Christians were surrounded by people of other beliefs. 

Near the Agora is a water reservoir connected to an aqueduct that brought water to the city.

This is our guide who tried to tell us what each area was used for...

sometimes we had a hard time deciphering her heavy Turkish accent but she was very knowledgeable. 

It is fascinating to hear about the inventions used by the Romans. Ephesus was a bustling place...a HUGE city for it's time and yet they had water systems and a canal to take away sewage. The clay pipes below have been dug up from underneath parts of the city and you can tell what flowed through them by what was found inside them. Some carried hot air underneath the streets to homes and businesses to heat them, others hot and cold water.  AMAZING for  1 BC!

Of course, slaves did most of the work in Ephesus.

You can see where the columns had to be "pieced together" to be complete.

The stone columns are very large and slaves spent a lot of time making those grooves in each one.

Our group is walking toward a small theater called the Odeon. 

The theater had two functions, first as a meeting place for the Senate and second as a concert hall complete with orchestra section.  It has a capacity of 1,5000 people and used to have a wooden roof enclosing it. The most important decisions and city matters were discussed here. This is actually a small theater compared to the Great Theater where Paul 
preached.

Attentive missionaries, fascinated by this ancient city where the Church of Christ flourished so very long ago.

Luke 21:29- 30" And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees: When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand."

There were fig trees scattered all around the ancient city, leafless but still bearing fruit.

Think about how much work it would take to find all the pieces for an archway or wall. Then the painstaking work figuring out how they all fit together. If you love jigsaw puzzles this may be the place to apply for a job.  

To the left, is the Prytaneion, a place where religious ceremonies, official receptions and banquets were held.  A sacred flame was kept burning on top of the Prytaneion symbolic of the heart of Ephesus. During excavations, two silver statues of Diana were found here.

Ephesus is a city built on hills, with roads winding to up to the top where remains of walls and buildings can easily be detected among the native vegetation. It must be a  daunting task to , not only unearth it all, but try and piece it all together. There are ruins on top of this hill still to be excavated.

Water was brought to the many fountains/reservoirs in Ephesus from three rivers through aqueducts and distributed from the fountains to homes and public baths by the underground system of clay pipes. Water could be taken free of charge from any of the fountains. Notice the clay pipe still buried near the fountain of Pollio in the photo below.

These pipes brought hot and cold water to the Scholastica baths.

This area of Ephesus is called Domitian Square, named for the Domitian Temple that was built here in 96 AD.

 The temple lies behind the big columns and in the photo below, you can still see the stairs that run up to the second story of the temple.

This is part of Domitian square.   Below, is the Pollio fountain with it's high arch facing the temple of Domitian. It was built in 97 A.D by a rich Ephesian named C.S.Pollio. What is interesting, is that all this information can be found by reading ancient scrolls and texts of antiquity. The Romans kept meticulous records on Ephesus.

Curetes Street  (below) was one of the main thoroughfares in Ephesus. Shops, fountains, homes and monuments lined both sides of the street.   We walked the length of this marble-lined street marveling at how well planned the city was. You could easily imagine robed men and women, shopping, talking and going about their business in this once busy city.

Think about the work involved in excavating a whole city...this marble street included. Piece by piece it has been recreated. Because to the many earthquakes that rocked Ephesus, the columns that line the street were replaced and now the street has a 4th Century look to it. 

Curetes Street is 1 km (over 1/2 a mile)  long; at the end of this street is the Great Library.

Rich people lived along Curetes Street as seen by the beautiful mosaic floors that were found in archaeological excavations.

We saw lots of cats living in Ephesus...probably to keep out mice.

 

We were told by our tour guide, that the ancient Romans knew the world was round in the 1st century BC.  A broken statue is the reason why.  This is a part of a statue of Emperor Trajan with his foot resting on a sphere, symbolizing his ruling "the world".

All those columns were pieced together...all the walls dug out of dirt; 

an amazing undertaking.

 We really were in Ephesus!

Everything about these ruins gave us a feeling of what life was like at the time of Christ.  It was hard to believe we were walking where ancient apostles walked. A day to remember forever. 

Hercules Gate (left) is located towards the end of the Curetes Street, it got its name because of the relief of Hercules on it. It was brought from another place in the fourth century AD to its current place, but the relief on it dates back to the second century AD.

The Celsus Library is an imposing structure even in it's current condition. Built in 117 AD.  It was actually built as a monumental tomb for Celsus Polemaeanus, the governor of the province of Asia. The grave of Celsus is beneath the ground floor, with a  statue of Athena (goddess of wisdom) over it. 

The Celsus Library was the third largest in the world at the time it was built.

We took so many pictures and learned so many interesting  things about Ephesus, it will take two blog posts to do it justice. Just know that Elder and Sister Davis were thrilled to be walking the streets of ancient Ephesus, even though in ruins today. The feelings of ancient times sunk deep into our souls as we  imagined a world where people talked about Jesus Christ and his crucifixion as if it had just happened. A place where Christians lived next door to idol worshipers, gladiators, and where people were fed to the lions. 

How hard it must have been to live a Christ-centered life back then. What faith those early members of Christ's church started out with...and as all the apostles of Jesus Christ were martyred how hard it must have been to keep the faith  without priesthood leadership. 

Acts 20:29- For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.