We wanted to see a lot of places in Turkey, so for the ancient sites we used Insight Travel to arrange tours. It was unusual because each day was different - guides, busses and drivers, members of the tour, but it worked very well.
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Ephesus
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From the entrance, you don't see much to impress you,
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A few columns and rubble, but be patient!
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The smaller theater for the government meetings
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Intensely red poppies
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Water pipes of terra cotta for the extensive water system.
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Wonderful workmanship
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Details hiding everywhere
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Smaller theater, the Odeon, had a capacity of 1400
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Stairs out of the theater
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Figs grow wild everywhere
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The columns were held together by lead, so later they were knocked down for the lead to make bullets.
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Our guide (Yuri, but not spelled that way) talkes about the origin of the symbol we still use for medicine: two snakes facing each other. As snakes shed their skins are are "reborn," so patients were to shed their illnesses and regain health.
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Greek legos
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The fountain of Trajan
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The ever present cats on a mosaic floor
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Temple of Hadrianus
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The men's latrine, obviously cold in winter!
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The Library of Celsus, second only to Alexandria at the time. Tetragonos Agora, the commercial section is on the right.
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Earthquakes devastated the city several times, and stacked up rubble fills the area.
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Marble Street from the large theater to the library square
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The large theater seats 24,000, the biggest in the ancient world. It has been used for concerts until recently.
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This gives you an idea of the size of the large theater
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The symbol of the bordello in Ephesus - there was a tunnel from the library to the bordello!
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The Artemis temple was the largest in the world - note the number of columns. Not much has survived all the earthquakes and fires, but one column was reconstructed
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The temple was built on a foundation of coal in a swamp and burned when oil ignited the roof and the foundation
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On top of the column are nesting storks
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The home reputed to be the final home of Mary
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The house
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