Monday, April 9, 2012

Turkey (IV)

Day 5: Visit around Ephesus

Happy Easter! Today is Good Friday (April 8th), and our hotel made a huge Easter display... all the guests were so busy taking photos rather than eating breakfast.





After breakfast, we made our way to Mary's House, this is believed to be the place where the Virgin Mary settled after Jesus died on the cross. Jesus had asked John the discipline to take care of his mother after his death, and so John brought Mary to Ephesus and helped her to find a secluded location for her to live the rest of her life.


Mary lived in the house that you see, but this has been re-done so that it look nice now... I would not have thought houses were like that in the past. And inside is really small, just a room for her to sleep in and a kitchen area. The area around her house was full of thick vegetation so actually it was not easy to located. Supposedly a German nun who was not physically mobile had a dream about the location of Mary's house and told others about it and that was how this location was discovered.

After a quick look at the location, we went back down the mountain to walk around the ancient city of Ephesus.

 below right: all over you can see the signs of Spring, as trees start to show the first signs of leaves and fruit - this here is a fig tree

The city's oratorium (not the sames as amphitheater)
This is where music concerts were held and also state meetings

Christians were persecuted for many years during the ruling of the Roman Empire and so many people could not openly disclose that they were Christians, and so they used a symbol to let other people know that there were Christians in the city - you see here in this photo on the left, something that looks like a pizza pie, in fact this contains all the essential information to recognize that there are Christians living here...

This symbol (known as Ichthys) is the Greek word for "Fish",  which is also the symbol for Jesus, Son of God. It is a combination of the Greek letters - ΙΧΘΥΣ

You can see the combination below how the blue strokes form this symbol.


Ephesus' biblioteca

Pillars from around the city - laid out after excavation

The city's amphitheatre

Inside the Amphitheatre - there were speeches and important events here, sometimes also gladiator competitions


 

There were many cats at the locations that we visit - some had dogs too, but this place had cats everywhere, and they were always coming around looking for food....

Our Lunch!
After lunch, we visited a small local museum, and in it the most interesting thing was a statue of the Goddess Artemis (Diana) - known as the protector of animals usually, but this one was very ornate and not like the usual Roman statues. This one might have been made by non-Romans and people who more likely believe in the fact that she can bring them fertility and prosperity. Her chest is decorated with many egg-shaped ornaments, and she is covered completely from head to toe. On the side of her skirt/dress, she has honey bees which is the emblem of Ephesus.

As you may know, in many museums, the artifacts that we see were a result of people taking the things from where they were found and putting them into a building for display. There is of course a very good reason for this - to share and preserve the artifact so that more people can appreciate it.

However, many times once the artifact is removed from its original location, it loses some of the authentic atmosphere as you may only be viewing it behind glass. So there was a sign in the museum and a letter showcased to appeal to visitors not to remove articles from their place of origin.

The letter on the right and the rock are from a Dutch visitor, he took the piece of rock from the Ephesus site and brought it home with him, but in the end wanted to return it and wrote the letter explaining why he took it and now wanted to return it.

Next, we went to visit a leather factory - Turkey is quite well known for its leather goods as well as other goods for export - carpets, clothes etc. Along the highways and in many cities we saw outlets for some international brands such as United Colours of Benetton.







That evening we returned to the hotel earlier so that we can have some time on the beach and use the resort facilities.


Day 6: Kusadasi to Sardis to Izmir (by tour bus)

On the way to Izmir, we stopped by the ancient city of Sardis, this was a city of arts - they were famous for their handicrafts and music. In this city there were many different nationalities and backgrounds living together.


The school for boys, the building is where their lessons were taught, the green field where the dogs are standing was their trackfield where they can practice different sports, behind the building is a swimming pool

Each brick was numbered when restoration works was done so that they would be placed back into the correct spot

The well kept boys' school


Then we went to visit the temple of Artemis, nearby, and all that remains are the two tall pillars (above left photo), and the surrounding area is used for farming now (above right and below photos).





For lunch, we had beef and chicken kababs, these were freshly made and grilled in a stove in the restaurant. A simple meal, but still very delicious!

The clay pot (above right) is dessert, it's like a baked custard made of milk and sugar and something like sago, a little like creme brulee.



Finally arrived in the city of Izmir, we had quite cool and rainy weather today, so the sky was full of clouds. Along the way I saw many interesting buildings, below are some of them...

Izmir was known as Smyrna historically and in the bible. It's the 3rd largest city in Turkey today. The houses are all packed together and you can see them make full use of the land, similar to Hong Kong, they have covered the sides of the hill as we entered the city.



above left: cannot see the hill, just houses after houses
above right: a colorful building

below left: the face of Mustafa Kemal (Father of the Turks, lead Turkey to Independence and the first President of the Republic of Turkey) carved on the side of a mountain
below right: most houses had satellite dishes installed



In Izmir there is a catholic church, the church of St. Polycarpe, we made an unplanned stop there. This was not part of the itinerary, but our reverend just shared with us the story about how Polycarpe died a martyr.

Polycarpe was being persecuted and arrested by Roman officials, the head official seeing that Polycarpe was already an eighty-something senior told him that if he renounced God then they would let him go, but Polycarpe said "How can I forsake my God, when he has never once forsaken me in the past eighty-six years?" and so he was tied to a pole and burned alive.

As we did not plan to visit this church, and did not make any appointments ahead of time we were not sure if we would be allowed in to visit. We had to wait a while in front of the church while our tour guide explained to the nun who lived there. In the end, the nun was very nice and let us in, and oh my! it is beautiful in there. If you've been to Catholic churches, you will know that they are usually very ornate, this one was full of paintings on the ceilings and had chandeliers... at first we were told we were not allowed to take photos inside, but after we spent some time in the church, just before we left, we pulled together some money for the church and gave it to the Sister. We thanked her and she asked if we had taken photos already.... we were all so happy to be able to snap a few photos... haha.....



above left: not sure what these are, but I think they may be signage of people who made significant donations to the church?



That night, we stayed at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Izmir, and close by they had a supermarket/shopping centre that is similar to Walmart. There is a supermarket on one floor, and on another floor, they had clothes, bags, shoes etc.


And the award goes to.... lol I found these Oscar awards in the Supermarket, in the section that sells crystals and other home decorations


above: looks like wal-mart or other supermarkets in North America doesn't it?
Everything is pretty clean and tidy in Turkey, so it was really comfortable strolling around and we didn't have to worry about food being dirty that much.


above left: dried figs, wild apricots, dried apricots
above right: roasted hazelnut

below left: fresh baked bread - mmmm, if I could I would have brought a couple of loaves back.... so good!





above right: yoghurt and milk - yummy!
below left: Turkish Delight - there are over 300 types of Turkish Delight (any dessert is called Turkish Delight)
below right: olive oil - my mom wanted to bring back bottles of olive oil because they are so much less expensive




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