Our Story
We are still hanging out in front of the library (and tomb) of one Mr.
Iulius Celsus.
And sitting around on the library steps, looking back up the Great Wide
Way that we just walked down a few minutes ago.
No few of our fellow turistas, young and otherwise, figure this is
their chance to be shameless attention hounds for their companions'
cameras.
An educational sign,
rendered all but harmless by its location.
The Lower City
About level with Mr
Celcus' Library sits an enormous acoustically near-perfect
amphitheater. A speaker on the stage can easily be heard at the top,
and vice versa.
A kilometer or less down a gentle slope was the municipal harbor.
Another wide way led from port to amphitheater, before hanging a right
to Library Plaza.
It must have made a spectacular entry to the city.
The port is no longer there - the ocean has receded several miles.
Visitors turn right about 100m below the great amphitheater, past the
plot where rich folks were "buried"; some of their sarcophagi are still
on display.
Outside the lower gate of Ephesus, you run a gauntlet remarkably like
the one
at the upper gate.
Tour busses wait to re-swallow their human feed.
I suppose you could look at this magnificent ancient city as a sort of
vomitorium for tour busses. (If you do, keep it to yourself.)
The three km walk back to town was more than this senior denizen wanted
to face; I took a fast cab.
Epilogue: St John's Basilica
I returned to St John's the next day.
Can anybody identify these scarlet flowers I found there?
Contents Copyright 2012 Jeff Bulf