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This is Fall Break - Turkey Part 2. After spending Republic day in Istanbul on October 29th, we left for a bus that night down to Selçuk, which is a small town that makes most of its money from tourists who drop by to see the archaeological site of Ephesus. the overnight bus ride wasn't terrible, but it wasn't very pleasant either. it was about 9 hours including 2 rest stops, one of which was on a ferry towards some part of Turkey that i couldn't recognize in the dark. basically, i had fallen asleep on the bus despite the loud, cracked-out Turkish soap opera that was playing on the tv, but woke up to a loud *thud* that the bus made as it rolled over a bumper onto a ferry heading for only-god-knows-where. one minute i was asleep on the bus, thinking i was on the road, the next minute i woke up and we were on a ferry. w.t.f. it was very disorienting, but also nice to get out of the bus for some fresh air and some "toast" for a midnight snack. after the quick ferry ride, we were back on the road again heading south towards Izmir, ancient Smyrna, and finally made it to Selçuk around 7 in the morning on Tuesday, October 30th. despite the long, tiresome bus ride, we stayed strong and went straight to Ephesus after checking into our hotel.

Ephesus was incredible to see, especially because it is the most well-preserved Hellenistic city in the world. some compare its archaeological remains to Rome and claim that it is even better than Rome in terms of its extensive preservation. the site is really big, and took us a good few hours to cover sufficiently. we started from the north entrance instead of at the magnesia gate at the south and made our way up the small hill to the other side. it was good fortune for us to have started that way because most of the large tour groups start at the south side and make their way down to the Library of Celsus (first picture, above), which is the most famous attraction there. it was reconstructed very carefully and you could see which parts were the original and which were reconstructed. the architecture and sculptural reliefs are truly magnificent to see, and much more impressive than i ever imagined. the Gate of Mithridates which leads to the agora was also impressive. unfortunately, we were not allowed to walk around the agora, and could only see it from a far distance on the road past the theatre and fountain of Trajan to the Library of Celsus. as we turned around from the library towards the road to the southern side, we encountered crowds of tourists flooding down towards us. when i saw that, i felt so happy that we didn't start from the magnesia gate, because it would've been very unpleasant to have been stuck behind one of those crowds. walking up the path, we saw the façade of Hadrian's Temple (pictured here) on our left side.

but to our right side, there was a covered site that charged us another 10 lira to see some excavated terrace houses. initially, i was hesitant about paying the extra 10 lira to see just ordinary terrace houses. but it turned out to be well worth the money. the terrace houses were very well preserved after an earthquake shattered most of the structures. what was outstanding to see were the amazingly well-preserved floor mosaics and wall paintings of the houses. the site, or rather, museum, provided an excellent structure for visitors to walk along and around the entire site. the floors were glass to allow us to see the mosaics beneath our feet, and even another story below to see the preserved room in its entirety. i had never seen any other ancient wall paintings so vivid in color and so pristine. most of the mosaic floors were preserved in their entirety, which is another very rare find in archaeology.

perhaps my favorite thing about the terrace houses was that it showed a typical aspect of everyday life of the ancient citizen. it was nice to finally see ordinary, albeit aristocratic or wealthier homes after only seeing monumental structures such as temples and palaces.

after seeing all of Ephesus, including the first Church of the Virgin Mary (not to be confused with the House of the Virgin Maryoutside of Selçuk), we walked back to Selçuk, stopping at the Artemision, one of the ancient seven wonders of the world. as you can see from the picture, not much of the temple is left, save for that column, which, mind you, is very tall. the altar is also marked, but not much of the foundation is left either. the site is large, open to all visitors for free, and has many geese running around because i think the people who sell random tourist junk right outside the site tend to their geese there as well. one of them simply told me that the geese live on the site. it was kind of weird. after our short visit, we made our way to the archaeological museum in Selçuk, which had a lot of things from Ephesus and the Artemision, including the famous statue of Artemis with the many breasts. the museum also had the famous wall fresco of Socrates that was excavated from the terrace houses in Ephesus.

the other major site in Selçuk is the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist. it is on Ayasoluk hill, which is now right in the middle of Selçuk. the site is where St. John spent the last years of his life because Jesus had assigned him the task of taking care of Mary, and because Mary made her way to Ephesus and supposedly lived and died there, it is believed that John did accompany her and thus established a church on the hill nearby. the site is very well-preserved, especially because most of it was built with brick. St. John was also buried there, so his tomb is marked with four columns and a raised platform. when i was there, a priest and some other worshippers were kneeling before his tomb, praying. i guess this site is much more of a pilgrimage site than i initially thought. although i'm not Catholic and therefore, do not pray to the saints, i did feel a sense of peace being there. the sun was setting in the distance, and from the spectacular view of that side of the hill, St. John clearly picked the best spot for his church since the structure was cruciform and was oriented east-west, with the courtyard facing the west side of the hill towards the sunset.

the next day, Johann, our driver and tour guide, picked us up in his little Fiat and drove us north to Pergama. at first, we didn't realize that he was going to take us there to Pergamon because we thought we were taking the bus like before. and we certainly didn't expect him to be our tour guide for the entire day. when we arrived in Pergama, we realized we were very lucky to have him because 1) the acropolis of ancient Pergamon has very poorly written descriptions and it would've been difficult to identify everything on our own without the guidebook and to distinguish the reconstructions from the original; 2) the Asklepion was also poorly marked and very far away from the acropolis. Johann was a strange old man. he took us all over the site and pointed things out to us with very laconic, terse explanations. he was very knowledgeable of the site, but perhaps there was a slight language barrier? whatever it was, it didn't matter since we still all learned a lot from him and had plenty of time to climb around the sites.

the acropolis at Pergamon was impressive because of the extensive fortifications that were still preserved in the original. the most famous and impressive structure was the Temple of Trajan. even the parts of the pediment still rested on top of the columns, with lion heads spaced apart serving as a form of rain gutter. the theatre was also very impressive because of its great size. even the gallery was very well preserved! the odd thing about the theatre is that it was built onto a side of the hill that was relatively steep, and thus the entire theatre was at an unusually steep angle. there was also no backstage behind the center stage. overall, the acropolis was amazing to see, and clearly underfunded because there is so much that has not been excavated, and there are so many ruins lying around that could easily be reconstructed.

after visiting the acropolis, we drove down to the Asklepion, where it was an ancient hospital as well as a sanctuary dedicated to Asclepius (Asklepios), the god of healing. the site was amazing, with a great view of the acropolis from the Sacred way. so much of the site is well-preserved, including the fountains, most of which still had water running through the pipes. i'm not sure if that was part of the reconstruction, but regardless, it was nice to see the fountains working. we were able to walk through the actual hospital part, and saw the room where surgery was performed and a hallway that had holes in the ceiling. according to Johann, the doctors would send some of their patients through the hallway and drop snakes on them through the holes in the ceiling..."shock therapy" as they called it. the small theatre was also very well preserved, and i think it was used mainly for medical lectures. another nice architectural feature of the colonnade was that the columns were in the Ionic Order, which was primarily used in this part of the ancient world. i keep forgetting that i can't expect to find such columns in Greece because mainland Greece in the west used the Doric Order while only the Ionian islands and settlements in Asia Minor used the Ionic Order.

anyhow, after that visit, we had a delicious Turkish buffet lunch and headed back towards Selçuk. except Johann asked us if we wanted to stop at an onyx factory because besides marble, Pergamon was famous for its onyx as well. so we ended our long day at the onyx factory, watching an old man shape a block of alabaster into an egg paper-weight, then looking at the random onyx creations at the onyx shop.