Port 48 Izmir, Turkey

by Ed · April 19, 2022

Merhaba! (Turkish for “hello!”),

We arrived at Izmir, Turkey, mid-morning on Apr 14th, 2022. The bay into the port is very long!

We turned around 180 degrees and backed into the dock!

On arrival we found TV camera crews and photographers. We heard the Mayor of Izmir was present. We learned we are the first cruise ship to dock here since 2015! It was quite a sight on the pier! Several folks were stopped to be interviewed by the TV stations, and I know my photo was snapped more than once by photographers! Hmmm, maybe I made a Turkish newspaper? Probably not – I was masked and wearing a hat.

This building had this lovely mural on the wall facing the port! I believe these represent a lot of the monuments and sights around Izmir. But I only recognize one of them from the photos I captured.

Joy and I have a tour to see Ephesus today. It is called “Ephesus with an Expert.” It’s a little over an hour drive to the site from Izmir. It’s much closer to the Kusadasi port that most ships go to, but that wasn’t on our Insignia itinerary. At the Cittanic Ephesus Park they have this beautiful building displayed. It is not a replica of anything I know, but it echoes the flavor of buildings such as the Parthenon in Athens and the Temple of Artemis here!

Standing near the entrance to Ephesus is a castle built during the Byzantine period that followed the original establishment of Ephesus, and came after the Greek and Roman periods had passed.

At the Ephesus Museum we meet our expert! His name is Jenghis Icten and he a curator for the museum of Ephesus. He worked for 40 years on the site and is singly responsible for finding about half of the artifacts in the museum, and many of the structures at the site!

He pointed out this frieze taken from a burnt layer under one of the Terrace Houses (which we will visit later). It shows the depth of artisitic skill that was available at the time, with layers of characters in the foreground and background. It depicts the Emperor Trajan and the Roman army in a victorious celebration after a battle.

There is a model of a temple akin to that of the Temple of Artemis. But this does not have the statuary in the pediment that the drawings of what the temple was thought to have, and has more columns than the Artemision.

There are two statues of Artemis. This one has a tall headdress and is called the “Great Artemis Statue.” Her arms appear to have been extended forward, but are missing.

Across the hall is this version, named the “Beautiful Artemis Statue”. She has her arms extending forward. The headdress is short but still round. And she is flanked by two animals.

What surprised me are a series of friezes that are labeled as being Parthenian. Are these from the Athenian Parthenon?

We leave the museum and finally enter the site! Excited!

Unfortunately, the Temple of Artemis was reduced to rubble and material was taken for other construction, so we don’t even get to see the site it was built on!

Ephesus had plumbing! Segmented terra cotta pipes fit together male to female ends! Pretty cool, huh?

The Temple of Hadrian was on the side of the main causeway, and appeared to have a small theater or odeon (a theater with a roof) adjacent to the temple.

This is the theater! Cute! This may have gone through some growing pains, as shown by the different materials. The marble is probably the original version associated with the temple.

The main thoroughfare is called the Curetes Street. It runs down the valley and hosted shops between the columns.

This is the Memmius Monument, an honor to Gaius Memmius, the grandson of Dictator Sulla. Lacking parts to complete a reconstruction the archeologists elected to stand some of the available parts together in a Cubist art representation, as you can see in the upper right.

This is a Nymphaeum Traiani fountain donated in honor of Artemis and Emperor Trajan. A statue of Trajan once stood in the center with his foot on the ball on the pedestal.

A sidewalk that parallels Curetes Street still shows remarkable tilework! This leads us to the Terrace Houses.

Jenghis rejoins our group at the Terrace Houses. The Terrace Houses are protected under an elaborate construction cover. What we see in here is incredible! Home after home are tiered up the mountainside in clusters of six or seven homes. This is the atrium of the first home off the street. All of these homes have running water!

This is the partially reconstructed basilica of one of the larger homes. This is where guests were greeted before moving into the atrium.

This home still has significant artwork on the walls and floors intact!

This lion tilework on the floor is magnificent!

A nearby room has mosaics of Dionysos and Medusa!

And nextdoor is Athena riding a seahorse being led by Triton, the fish-tailed son of Poseidon!

The structures in the Terrace Houses are fantastic! They had running water, baths, fountains. And these homes were built over the ruins of previous homes.

Moving on, this is a classic view – The Celsus Library!

Beyond the Celsus Library is the marketplace. This is the site where the Apostle Paul was accused by the silversmiths of trying to ruin their trade of making silver Artemis statues. They ran him out of town, and moved the protest to the Great Theater just on the other side of the marketplace.

The Great Theater is fabulous! This has been renovated to allow concerts to play here. But the Guns ‘n Roses concert vibrated stones out of place, so amplifiers were banned from all following concerts.