Ephesus ahead of its time
Jesus Christ's disciples St Paul and St John the Evangelist both walked along this wide street in Ephesus. They stepped on the actual stones on which I now tread.
In fact, St Paul had to leave the city for his own safety, exiled to the nearby GREEK ISLAND OF PATMOS, but he wrote the New Testament's Book of Ephesians, an epistle to the Church of Ephesus, and completed the Book of Revelations in the Ephesus area.
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Even Cleopatra, queen of Egypt from 47-30BC, walked exactly here with Mark Antony, with whom she formed a romantic and political alliance after a brief liaison with Julius Caesar.
In fact, Cleopatra so loved the high-quality shops which flanked Arcadian Street, where I stroll now in this ancient city in Turkey, that when Mark Antony came here without her, she insisted he bring back gold and silver jewellery for her.
After her, Hadrian, Roman emperor from AD117-138, came here at least three times in travels that took him to the north of England, where Hadrian's Wall was built, and to leave his mark in Athens and Rome.
Today, Ephesus, in the west of Turkey, is visited mainly by tourists who call in on cruise ships and take this as an excursion. They dock at the port town of Kusadasi and usually travel in coaches the 16km to Ephesus.
And that is the journey I have made today in the capable hands of Sertan Somnez, who has been a guide for 18 years.
Mr Somnez explains that, in fact, there have been several phases of the city.
In the 11th century BC the Greeks came, but from 300BC to AD700 it was developed and run by the Romans, and that is what the archaeological site today shows.
"It is one of the greatest Greek and Roman archaeological sites in the world," Mr Somnez says. It stands out among a remarkable 2500 sites in Turkey, all of which are more than 1000 years old.
Being on the cusp of East and West - of two worlds - Ephesus has been tugged this way and that. Mr Somnez himself is quick to point out that the Turks as we see them today are not indigenous, but came from Mongolia 1000 years ago.
Turkish history starts in the 11th century, along with the first presence of Muslims, though it is a secular, not Islamic, country and there is freedom of belief.
Today Turkey is often thought of as "part of Europe" and aims to be part of the European Union, but it is in Asia. In fact it is on the cusp of what was traditionally called Asia Minor and Europe - the port of Ephesus was regarded as the gateway to the East just as, further up the coast, the Turkish city of Troy had been in earlier times.
Indeed, Ephesus was such a busy and important hub that it was compulsory for visitors to take a bath before entering the city. The remains of those baths can still be seen.
It is all a little difficult to visualise now, as Ephesus is 5km from the Aegean Sea, but the Menderes River, on which it was built, silted up to such an extent that the standing water encouraged mosquitoes, which spread malaria and other diseases.
The city was eventually abandoned in the 7th century AD and the sea's edge slowly pushed to its current line.
The city's demise was complete and over the centuries since it was covered by dirt, which has been gradually removed.
That has revealed the temple to the goddess Artemis, which was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Some 20m high and with 127 columns, it was three times the size of Athens' Parthenon.
There is also a grand or great theatre, which could seat 24,000 of the city's 250,000 inhabitants.
There was also an odeion in Ephesus - a small concert hall. And in this word alone we start to see other histories. For in Arcadian Street, lined as it was with shops, we see origins of the word arcade.
Near it, the ancient Agora was used for political and religious gatherings. It was a massive square of 112m sides founded in the third century BC, and in this we see origins of the word agoraphobia - the fear of open spaces.
At the public toilets - the latrina, built in the first century AD - people sat side by side and socialised. Four aqueducts brought spring water down from the hills, and there were terracotta pipes into houses and sewers under the main street.
Thirty million people visited Turkey last year, 10 per cent come to Ephesus. There is plenty for them to see, from Hercules' Gate to a statue of Nike, the female goddess of victory (her pose resembling the shape of a tick).
The Library of Celsus. Ephesus, Turkey. Picture: Stephen Scourfield
The Library of Celsus was built between AD117 and 120 - a massive and impressive building.
There are the remains of a statue of Emperor Trajan, who ruled from AD98-117, with one foot on a world that is clearly spherical, at a time when it was still widely believed that the world was flat, and 300 years before it was proved otherwise.
But surely the most impressive part of the visit is seeing the terraced houses of the Roman royalty. These were built on the slopes of Mt Bulbul in the seventh to sixth centuries BC.
Frescoes on wall and mosaics on floors of terraced houses. Ephesus, Turkey. Picture: Stephen Scourfield
The houses, in rows, were two-storey, covered from 2000-7000 square feet (186-650sqm) and had bathrooms, toilets and heating similar to today's radiators. The floors had mosaics, giving the appearance of today's rugs, and walls were covered with frescoes, like wallpaper.
Restoration work by Austrian archaeologists is being concentrated on one of the houses, where up to 100 fragments of fresco are being computer matched and placed each day. Perhaps the ultimate jigsaw of 120,000 pieces.
An earthquake in AD270 interrupted their habitation for several decades, but some of the houses were used for 600 to 700 years.
Mr Somnez paints a word picture of a privileged lifestyle. "This was the Beverly Hills of Asia Minor," he says. "They weren't just rich, they were filthy rich." They lived a lavish lifestyle, complete with ocean views, at the time.
"Location, location, location," Mr Somnez says. He looks down the valley and across the plain and shrugs.
Far sighted: Emperor Trajan's foot on a round globe in Ephesus, Turkey. Picture: Stephen Scourfield
FACT FILE
• The four-masted barquentine cruise ship Star Clipper includes Kusadasi and Ephesus on its seven-night Northern Cyclades voyage in the Aegean Sea. It sails from Athens and also visits the Greek islands of Patmos, Amorgos and Mykonos. There are many other itineraries on Star Clipper, Star Flyer and Royal Clipper. See travel agents and www.starclippers.com.
• Emirates flies twice daily to Dubai, and on to Athens, which is not much more than a four- hour flight. See www.emirates.com/au or travel agents.
More Star Clipper adventures: SEA OF TRANQUILLITY
GUIDE TO GREEK ISLANDS
Stephen Scourfield travelled courtesy of Star Clippers and Emirates.
