The ruins of Ephesus

After our night with the trucks we set out in overcast and rain to find our way to the town of Selcuk and the famous nearby ruins of Ephesus. The roads were good the scenery pleasant and we eventually found our way into the main street of Selcuk.

It took a little more navigation to get ourselves to the lower parking lot at the ruins but nothing our GPS could not cope with. The guy at the gate was kind enough to charge us the price listed for a private vehicle (8TL) rather than the price for a bus (40TL). We picked what we thought was an out-of-the-way spot parked and started to get lunch ready when there was a knock on the door. One of the local merchants (selling souveniers) was there to tell us we should park at the other end of the lot so that we would not get "blocked in" by all the buses. We followed his advise and then set about lunch again.

As it turned out the "park at the other end" conversation started what one might call a "mini-relationship". Not longer after stopping in our new parking spot the merchant was back with tea for two and then was telling us that there was a minibus that would take us to the top entrance. The minibus sounded like a good idea as LonelyPlanet had suggested that the uphill walk was strenuous in hot weather. The minibus became a car driven by our mechant, and the car turned out to be the property of the local carpet making school and you guessed it the price of the ride to the top parking lot was a visit to the carpet school with the expectation that we would shed a few thousand dollars on an admittedly lovely but unwanted carpet. We eventually extracted ourselves from the carpet place and as promised the merchant drove us to the upper parking lot - or almost, and this is the most bizarre part of the whole experience. He stopped about 300 yards short of the parking lot and indicated we should get out and walk the remaining distance. We speculated afterwards that this strange behaviour was probably related to the fact that in the Selcuk area businesses (including hotels) are not allowed to provide courtesy buses to take guests/customers to the ruins only local taxis have this priviledge.

So there we were at the top of the narrow valley, around and along which was once built the city of Ephesus. The Lonely Planet guide describes the ruins as perhaps the "best preserved classical city in Eastern Mediterranean if not Europe". We found it impressive, the paved main street that ran down the center of the valley with remains of buildings along each side with their various decorated entrance ways was perhaps the most impressive. Nina visited the Terraced Houses (extra charge) a special display consisting of ongoing excavation of a section of upper class housing. The buildings in this section were large and elaborate, some still showing their original decoration. There was of course the manditory theater and on the lower reaches of the valley a large agora open space or market area.