Selçuk/Efes, Bergama/Pergamum and Smyrna/Izmir, aka "The Ruins Trip"

Almost exactly a week ago I left on a trip for the Aegean Coast. 4 trips into the Izmir bus station, 176 cute cats, 2 friendly hostel owners, and 912,387 marble columns later, I have seen plenty of evidence to convince me Trajan and Hardian and Eumenes were, in fact, real. At least as real as Zeus and Artemis, and they was some of the realest EVER. For real though, there's tablets and monuments and statues, and I've seen them, so either those history books got some stuff right, or the Turkish Culture and Tourism Bureau has quite a racket going. Where to start...

My Knowledgeable Classicist Travelling Companion and I actually spent our first day in the region getting soaked in Selçuk, since we decided to brave the precipitation and visit the Basilica of St. John and the Archaeological Museum, both of which I'm really glad I went to, now that I'm not shivering anymore (turns out cotton kills in the city, too). There wasn't much to see architecturally at St. John's Church, mostly just the lay-out and a few walls representing where the narthex and everything was back in the day. Since St. John and Mary are said to have lived out their lives after the death of Jesus in that region, the church had a lot of meaning as a place where they spent time. In fact, we saw the slab of marble that marks where he is buried. So for anyone keeping track at home, that makes one apostle's burial place I've visited now. Check back regularly for updates.

Even though I'm already on track to raise my lifetime average for archaeological museums visited to over 1 per year by August, the one in Selçuk deserves special mention. It is relatively small, but there were rooms dedicated especially to Artemis (Diana) and Bes that were very well done. Some of the sculptures from Ephesus had been taken there for viewing instead of left at the site. Do a Google image search for Bes to find out why he is so famous, a true precursor to Priapus.

The next morning, I was driven along with my Knowledgeable Classicist Travelling Companion the 5km up to the entrance for Ephesus, the ancient Roman city that is so vast and well-preserved it really lives up to its fame. On the way out of town, the driver, our host Tayfun, stopped in the middle of the road on the main street and hopped out to a little cart on the sidewalk. He jumped back into the car with three fresh little donuts with cinnamon on them, so divine. It was one of those fun little asides you don't expect when going somewhere for its attractions that make things more fun- nothing like starting a day of visiting ruins with a hot donut-and-a-half in your stomach.

The most impressive thing about Ephesus was really the extensiveness of the ruins. Part of the reason they were so well preserved seems to be that the mayor of the region wanted to move the city to Selçuk in the fourth century, and dammed up the city during some heavy rains to get people to shift. So that was a bummer, but it meant plenty of roads and columns and temples survived pretty well.

Me, in front of some Roman arches at Efes


Knowledgeable Classicist Travelling Companion standing in part of the Roman theater. This was actually the third-largest ancient theater I have seen in the last week, after another one at Ephesus and the one at Bergama. Apparently they used to have concerts here, until Sting exceeded the decibel limit and started literally rocking the house. Dad must be proud.
The Library of Celsus the Very Well-Read. Also notable are the statues of the goddesses representing the four virtues (partially obstructed by pillars)- from right to left: Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful and Doc

I also have some good shots of the Temple of Hadrian and the Marble Way. I don't want to take up too much space here, so just shoot me an email if you are interested.

The other great site in Selçuk was the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. More importantly, it had free admission. (OK, so did all the other sites we went to; thank-you teacher ID cards!)

That little speck next to the column is me. Unfortunately this pillar is all that's left of the Temple of Artemis. It was burned down in antiquity by some guy who wanted to be famous. He was an ancestor of Harry Frazee.

On Monday, we took a bus back to Izmir, and then out to Bergama. The bus apparently couldn't decide if it was a local bus or an inter-city bus, because it was a big, touring Mercedes, but also stopped to drop people off and pick them up in every town between Izmir and Bergama. The scenery was as amazing as ever on the coastal rim, with lots of sparkling bays to glimpse and barren February fields and vineyards to ponder. In Bergama we stayed in a restored Greek guesthouse, similar to the Ottoman era houses that we saw earlier this year in Safranbolu. The owner, Ersin, had the best collection of late 20th century fiction and non-fiction books I've seen this side of my parents' house. Being in the old Greek nieghborhood was nice because the architecture was fascinating, and the town was small enough that even though the streets were winding in some places it was really easy to find our way around.

The first afternoon in Bergama, we undertook to visit the Asclepion, ancient home of Galen and his medical research and treatment. There was a blistering wind as we set off up the hill for what looked like the entrance, according to the Lonely Planet map. We found a promising-looking gate, but it was closed. If it hadn't been right next to a large military installation, I might have jumped it, but I wasn't looking to get all Tiananmen Sq. over the easiest way to enter a tourist site. So, we shivered back down the hill to a taxi stand and got a ride through town, and back up the hill, to a spot literally about a couple hundred yards from where we had just been. Apparently in the "low season" of tourist traffic, they only keep entrance open, and we had chosen wrong. C'est la vie. The site itself was very cool, featuring not just a building for medical practice that still had a ceiling (!), but also temples to Asclepius, the god of health.

Pillars from the Temple of Asclepius at the Asclepion, with the theater in the background

On Tuesday, after a delicious breakfast of kaymak (milk butter, sort of the consistency of really light cream cheese, but more flavorful, and quite divine when combined with honey to go on bread), olives and cheese, and tea, we started out at the Red Basilica, just down the street from our guesthouse. It was constructed in the 2nd century AD by the emperor Hadrian, and later converted into a Byzantine church. It was so big that after it was destroyed by Arab raiders in the 8th century, a new structure was built within the ruins.

The massive, partially restored walls of the Red Basilica. I think they'd make a nice complement to the Green Monster, personally.

After seeing the Red Basilica, we started to walk up the hill to the Acropolis (fortified city). It was easier to find than the Asclepion, but farther away (about 7km each way, according the taxi driver who tried to convince us to take a cab- he probably thinks we are still staggering down now). I'm not sure if the Asclepion covers a greater area than Efes, but it seemed like it did, because it was set on different elevations. The upper part featured the gate into the city and some well-restored temples, strategically placed to give the gods who were being worshipped a good view. And it worked well for that, you could see plains and fields for miles in every direction from the Acropolis. There were so many different types of marble and other stones among the ruins that I wish I been able to go with Arvid, so he could tell me which ones were part of the natural formations of the hill and which ones the unfortunate slaves carried up seven kilometers of road.

One of the most special parts of the upper Acropolis we didn't catch until the way out: the Temple of Zeus. Yeah, I almost walked by one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World without stopping to admire. Now, though, I can say I saw over a quarter of them in a three-day span. Between the Temple of Zeus and the Temple of Artemis at Efes, there was about enough stone left to carve out a championship trophy for the 2007 Patriots, but the mystique was still there. The greatest part about walking in and amongst the ruins was being able to disappear into different staircases and pop out of genuine ancient arches. I wish I had visited it as a kid, so that everything would have seemed even bigger and I could have jumped around more on the edifices without worrying about my knee. Another great thing about being there was that for some reason it was much less crowded than Efes, which made things seem much more haunted with the past.

Some of the arch-ways I would have liked to jump in and out of as a little kid.

We used the theater to get down to the lower level, walking down through the steep stadium seating. Since it was on such a steep hill, the builders decided to add altitude rather than width to it, making for a rather striking environment, especially for anyone with vertigo.

The Lower Acropolis had about a dozen terraced sections with excavations and ruins just laid out as part of the landscape. It was surreal to be able to just walk along the side of the hill and trudge past Roman columns and hugee slabs of engraved marble. Most of the terraces had arched caves cut slightly into them too, with the original brickwork often at least partially intact. It was great to see some relatively unrefined bits of masonry that obviously wouldn't have been restored to that state, that you knew had to have been put up like that a couple thousand years ago.

The terraced sections of the hill took us about half-way down towards where we had come from, but to use the proper exit (danged barb-wire) we had to go all the way back up to the top and out. One of the really nice souvenir stand guys lent Meredith a copy of the book they sold at the stands about the Acropolis to read while we were there, so she returned that and we had some çay up there before returning "home". That night we went to a cute little restaurant off the main street and had some mantı (roughly translates as "Turkish ravioli", but that doesn't do it justice because it's small and hand-rolled and served with yogurt and spices, mmmmm). Beautiful atmosphere, no foreigners to compete with, and it only cost about $4 each. Good times.

The two best parts of Izmir, indeed, our two reasons for going, were the bazaar and the "kordon" walkway along the bay. First we wound our way south for a couple kilometers until we found heard the loud, bustling, noises and fishy smells of a Turkish market and plunged in. The next time you find yourself annoyed by someone in a public setting, just picture them next to an over-anxious fish-merchant with the lungs of Pavarotti trying to clear his stall around 4:45 in the afternoon. The person might still be annoying, but it'll be a funny image.

We happened to be there on Valentine's Day Eve, so it seemed especially appropriate walk along the waterfront as the sun set over the bay, even if it was still a little chilly. Between the fortune-teller with the baby rabbit and the toothless guy with a cigarette selling roses, there was enough cuteness to power another year of Obama's campaign (I'm kidding, Obama's health care plan is far more substantial than bunnies and roses, it just still lags behind that of all the other industrialized nations and doesn't live up to the challenge that John Edwards kicked off the race with). It was a fitting close to the trip; so there you have it, and if you're still hungry for more, I'm always happy to rehash it over email or Skype or via carrier pigeon.