The Splendid Turkey - Ephesus

Today is another beautiful day in Turkey which seems to remain strong and fresh in my memory. I have always wanted to visit the ancient cities, or ancient ruins, or even ancient castles in the European countries. I do not exactly know why I'm yearning to see these old places. Some people might they are just old, musty and some would say they are ugly and damaged. Well, the ugly and damaged is the one that steer me towards the imagination of living in the past times. I know it sounds too much of fantasies but living in fantasies has, at least, kept me away from the ugly truth of the real life. But not for so long though.


House of Virgin Mary (Meryemana)

So, our first visit in the sunny, cool morning was to the  Meryemana. It is actually a shrine which is believed the house of Virgin Mary (Maryam), the mother of Jesus Christ (prophet Isa). It was just near Selcuk town towards the hilly area. The view along the moderately winding road was amazing.

The story, as told by our guide of the day, was interesting but there was a certain degree of uncertainty of that place being the house of Virgin Mary. Well, we will never know the real past times because we are not there to witness the truth. But thanks to the science and technology for uncovering the truth, bits by bits.

Some surface information which is good to know.

This is where Virgin Mary used to live in the past

Natural spring water source

The story behind this shrine can be best read from this link ---------> History of Meryemana, especially if text book is not one's cup of coffee..or tea...whichever you prefer.

There is a small cafe and a row of shop selling praying stuffs and not many souvenirs can be found here unless you want to bring back some religious items like the Jesus halo paintings, praying beads and several other stuffs.

Ancient City of Ephesus

Heading downhill, we had a very quick photo stop at the Virgin Mary statue. And from that point, the view of the Ephesus 'Colosseum' and the excavated portion of Ephesus ancient city were visible.
The whole area was green with the beautiful sunlight shining brightly.

View of the Colosseum fro the Virgin Mary statue (maximum zoom from my camera lens)

Virgin Mary statue

The green and the view of Selcuk town

The other portion of the ancient city. Inaccessible at the moment

For this entry, the information on the entrance fees are unavailable as everything has been included in the package booked. But if I were to guess, it can be less than 10 Lira for the shrine, and around 25 - 30 Lira for the ancient city.

All visitors are dropped at the entrance only gate where there are several souvenir shops selling nice stuffs, light snacks and beverages. But the guide said we can do the buying and haggling at the exit later. However, if you don't have water with you, it is a great idea to buy a bottle or two because it is going to be a long walk under a sunny, cloudless sky. Of course getting fainted or dehydrated is the last thing one will try to avoid.

Every structure in the ancient city represents functional building in the past which I cannot recall all of it at all. There are hospital building, temple, library, market, shops, theater and all other buildings for the use of the public as well as the royalties.

There is one word which I have never knew existed until I visited this place that actually refers to the toilet. It is the latrine. Mum said during her schooling time, students use the word latrine instead of toilet. Well, maybe I should start using that latrine word. It feels more classical and different.

Owh..and there are many cats in this area and the best thing is, they are freaking fluffy, fat and cute. How I wish I can take one home and match-make them with my little babies at home. It is really awesome to see Turkish guys feed these cats and no wonder they are healthy and fat. Of course I cannot avoid myself from comparing the 'public' cats in Turkey and Malaysia. What I have heard from the Turkish guide, Turkish men will never bit or harm these 'public' cats because to them, cats are gentle creatures and being the favorite pets of our prophet Muhammad. They feed and play with them instead. I'm loving Turkish guy...ehh..ehhh.... In Malaysia, it is the opposite though I know there are many good people being nice to these helpless creatures. I don't feel good using the word 'stray' cats and prefer to use 'public' cats. It is just personal.

Kitty cleaning itself

This whole city was buried due to massive earthquake that strikes Turkey long time ago. And I've been told that only a small percentage of the city has been excavated and salvaged, whilst the the other huge area remain buried underground, beneath the hills. It takes many years to retrieve the whole lost city and it is not going to be cheap. One of the reason why ancient city of Ephesus is not gazetted as UNESCO World Heritage site until today is because of the amount of money required to excavate and restore this city. Actually I am not exactly sure if that is the real reason but as long as the authority does the right thing to preserve and restore this place, it should be fine.

Broken pillars along the path heading to the temple

The heart of the city

The hospital building

The arc at the one of the temples

The medical symbol used until today

The Nike goddess.

Headless..spooky

Shops

Kitty sleepy

In particular, all visitors come to Ephesus ancient city to see the grand (and ruined) Library of Celcus which is actually lovely and awesome. At a glance, one might think that this structure is located anywhere in Italy, but the fact is, it was built during the Roman Empire, in honor of the Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celcus Polemaeanus. The Senator was not a Roman though, but a pure Greek who became the consul in the Roman Empire.
Perhaps, another Wikipedia link would be beneficial and interesting to refer too -----> Library of Celcus

My favorite (and everyone's favorite) structure. Library of Celcus

Market place

Claimed to be the largest open theater in the world. Colosseum is an amphitheater...I'm so confused

Local produces outlet: olive products, pottery and leather outlet

Before lengthy elaboration on this part, I think I will first generalize the worthiness of visits to these places :

The pottery : worth visiting, worth buying (if you are crazy about clay stuffs)
Olive products outlet : worth visiting, not so many products but worth buying things (cheap and nice stuffs)
Leather outlet : buy all means, please avoid. Nice and up-to-date products but super-bloody-horrible expensive.

Whenever you are in Turkey, the Turkish men will proudly tell you about the Iznik clay and this Iznik clay is only exclusive in Turkey. I came to know that there several types of clay and according to the Turkish, Iznik clay is the best. Well, use the power of the search engine to find out about it.
And be very careful not to get cheated with the original Turkish made pottery and the China made pottery. All of us know that Chinese stuffs are really cheap but quality-wise may not be that good. But there are huge tendencies that you would be paying at an absurd price for the China-made potteries, especially in Istanbul. I do not know exactly how to distinguish between the local-made and China-made stuffs, but I presume it is a good time to get close and be a close friend to the locals. They might give you several pointers.

The designer and the painter

Drying process

Here is where I got myself almost fainted.

Looks really good in my future house

Craziness

As for the olive product outlets, it is just a small shop near to the pottery and all are locally made, from olive oil, to hair care products. The owner is a modern Turkish lady and to my surprise, she knows Malay language and speaks fluent Malay.  I believe in the benefits of using olive oil based products from hair to toe. It is just the consistency in using the products that matters a lot. And olive is mentioned in the Quran many times which strengthen the facts of the usefulness of olive oils.

The leather outlets do have lots of leather products. I could not remember the name but I'm pretty sure it is one and only outlet located at the on the left side of the road if you are heading back to Kusadasi. The cheapest item sold seems to be more than double for the same item sold in Dubai. Well, of course I have not been to Dubai but a couple who is on the same trip told me about this. They are Indian nationals making a great living in Dubai and they know a lot about leather. Anyway, I'm not a fan of leather stuff so I don't really care. But my mum do care about it. Sorry mum, couldn't afford to get you one nice leather stuff. Next time maybe...

Temple of Artemis

First of all, don't get too excited when you are heading here. The temple has long destroyed and the only remaining structure at the temple site as a pillar. That's it. However, at the higher ground from the temple, you can see a nice castle, a mosque and a fort-like structure which are quite stunning. I have no idea what are the names of those buildings exactly. But if one insists to know about the 'vanished' temple, it is good to buy a book with good graphical representation, sold by the locals for 10 Euro. Temple of Artemis was actually a grand temple and if it is still there, it would attract thousands of visitors every day.

The only remnant of the temple, the one and only pillar and the stubs. 

The fort-like building. Most probably part of the castle. 

Returned to the hotel at Kusadasi and felt really good. I spent the remaining time at the balcony to see the beautiful evening view of Kusadasi. Thought of wondering about the small town of Kusadasi but mum was too tired to walk.

So that's the end of our day for today.