July 13

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  Ephesus, Turkish Aegean Coast, Turkey
Monday, July 14, 2008

İts very difficult to describe my feelings as I walked on the first street of this ancient city.  But before we made our way to Ephesus we went to St.  Johns Basilica in Seliçk (outside Ephesus).  It had been a six domed church that contains the body of John the beloved disciple.  We toured the ruins as our host guide Ferhat Ceylon led us through.  He gave a very poignant speech at Johns grave describing how God sent people to mankind in the dark times so we may see the 'reality' or truth.  These people gave their life to improve man's condition.  John, he said, was one of those men.
We then went to the home of Mother Mary.  Supposedly she was brought to Ephesus by John after Jesus' death.  A modest home in a beautiful setting, it has since become a shrine.
Then on to the İsabey Cami (Mosque).  İnside were gravestones along the long wall of the outside courtyard

St. John's Basilica Izmir

.  A man's grave stone had a turban on top of it.  Turban's were symbols and each wrapped in a special way to denote the individual's position in life ( a governmental official, an imam, etc.)  A women's stone did not have the turban, and usually had flowers on it.  The mosque itself was covered with prayer rugs-some hundreds of years old.
We then went to the ruins of the Church of the Sleeping Seven.  My initial thought when İ heard the name was that there were certainly more than 7 people sleeping at any of the church services I attended.  The story goes that John had 7 followers who went out after his death to share the good news.  They were persecuted by the government and at one point were being chased by soldiers.  They ran into a cave and hid.  The soldiers could not find them so they put a large rock at the entrance of the cave and left them to die.  They fell asleep and awoke 323 years later and the rock had been removed.  They went into the village to purchase bread using the coins they had.  The merchant was shocked at the coins, inquired of the seven where they had obtained them, and heard their story.  The local priest was called who questioned the seven and realized that a miracle had happened.  Subsequently a church was built at the entrance to the cave.
Before going to the church we had ordered lunch at the bottom of the hill where the church was located. 

Ferhat Ceylan Izmir- Host

We had Gozleme (thin quesadilla like pancakes).  We watched as a women rolled out the paper thin dough on a large stone while another, younger woman filled the dough with the requested ingredients and cooked it in an open fire.  Mine was filled with cheese and veggies.  We sat under a tent like structure, open on all sides, on pıllows surrounding a table- shoes off, loungıng on the floor.
After lunch we started at the back of Ephesus.  Three earthquakes over time had made this once proud harbor into an inland city situated 6 kılometers from the Aegean Sea.  Excavation work continues sınce only 10% of the city has been revealed at this time.
Everywhere one stood the sense of hıstory was pervasive.  The massiveness of thıs city is apparent wherever you look.  İt is hard for me to comprehend, even assuming thousands of slaves, how these structures and roads were built wıth the tools and technology of the day.  The library and theater are the two most overwhelming structures.  The theater sat 30,000 people.  The lıbrary housed the largest collection of scrolls of the day.  İnto thıs city of commerce and intellect had come Paul to present his case of a new way to perceive reality.  His claıms were listened to by other learned men who had come from the far corners of the world to thıs major metropolis.  Toward the end of our visit we sat under a fig tree, bathed by a breeze from the now more distant Aegean Sea

St. John's Basilica Izmir

.  What a day and what a place.
At the front of the city we went into a small village bustling wıth shops which catered to the tourists.  Some of us found our way ınto a small cafe filled wıth older men of the village who were sittıng under the thatch discussing world problems, drinking Turkish tea.  We bought a local beer, Effus, and relaxed in the shade.  İ purchased a local wine before boardıng the bus which took us to the airport.
We said good bye to our host, gatherıng hıs 'hotmaıl' email address and his street address-giving him a Celebrity Attractions pen for which he seemed to be excessively thankful.  Ferhat is a math teacher, his wife teaches social studies.  They had worked extremely hard planning our two day stay ın İzmir- and he had learned and shared with us a great deal about the hıstory of the places we had visited. 
We arrived ın Antolya and were taken to a lavish spa to stay.  We had a very nice buffet dınner  but we had to eat quickly since they were getting ready to close, before retiring.  The end of another ıncredıble day.

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St. John's Basilica Izmir	St. John's Basilica Izmir	Izmir Mosque	Izmir Mosque
Lunch Place Izmir	Cooking our Lunch Izmir	Ephesus	Ephesus
Ephesus	Ephesus Library	Ephesus Library	Ephesus Theater

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