Ephesus: An Ancient Wonder
Our first port stop on the Greece and Türkiye cruise was the city of Kusadasi. We got off the port then boarded the bus that would take us to Ephesus.
Ephesus, an ancient city that dates back to the eleventh century B.C., was an amazing place to visit.
As I wandered through the streets of the ruins, I felt at a loss for words. Here I was walking where the Virgin Mary, Princess Arsinoe IV (Cleopatra’s sister) and other important people once lived. It’s a location rich in history and played a significant role in the spread of Christianity.
During the tour, I had captured notes on my photos using my iPhone but I was disgruntled to find that when I came to put this post together, my notes had disappeared.
I’m sharing some of the photos from Ephesus along with any details I recall from our fantastic tour guide.
Tech Tip: If you take notes on your iPhone photos app and you’re going to transfer your photos from the iPhone to the Photos app on your Mac, the notes don’t get transferred. As I discovered, once your photos are deleted from your phone the notes are gone forever. According to what I’ve read if you back photos to iCloud, the notes on your photos get saved, but I don’t have the amount of iCloud space I would need to be able to back up all my photos.
The structure for the city’s pharmacy was indicated by the column containing the medical symbol. Hercules Gate was placed in this location around 4th century AD. It was used to narrow the street to restrict traffic to pedestrians only. The Library of Celsus, one of the largest of its time. It was completed in 135 AD.
Not surprising that across from the library was a brothel (not pictured).Carving of Nike, The Goddess of Victory. The swoosh of the Nike brand of sneakers was inspired by this goddess. If you look you can see the inspiration for the swoosh by her leg. 
Sarcophagus od Arsinoe IV. Cleopatra murdered Arsinoe fearing her sister was a threat to her power.
Ephesus was an important port city. However, it began to lose its importance and eventually was abandoned as silt built up and moved the harbor further away. Today the Aegean Sea is over four miles away from the ancient city.
The main street and marketplace. One can imagine this once bustling with activity. The end of this road where the line of trees is would’ve led to the start of Aegean Sea when Ephesus was a vibrant, thriving city.
Terrace Houses
Our tour included a visit to the terrace houses, hillside dwellings that were the homes of the wealthy. One surprising facts about these residences is that they had the modern convenience of hot and cold running water supplied by clay pipes like the ones shown in the photo above. The clay pipes were also used to heat the homes.
Homes were used by various families over time and each owner would decorate according to their tastes. As a result, many of the homes had floor mosaics and wall paintings that were of different styles as shown in the photos.
Wall painting in one of the terrace houses. Tiled mosaic on the floor of the same room in the terrace house.
Finally, no tour would be complete without some cat photos.
If you decide to visit Ephesus, I recommend going on a tour. Our visit was enriched by the information presented by our tour guide.