Ruination

Photos: ,Diana in all her testicled glory, library at Ephesus, honest shopkeeper

Nov. 1, 2022-More History--- Ephesus was #2 of what we really wanted to see in Turkey. Even at the end of a three week trip seeing endless ruins, it was impressive. There is evidence of civilization there as early as 6,000 years ago during the copper age. It flourished as a seaport and grew to 250,,000 inhabitants as the Roman Empire’s capital of Asia Minor. Then the barbarians came and silt built up in the port faster than they could remove it. Malaria was the coup de grace and it was abandoned in the 1500 ‘s. Artifacts from the city are in museums around the world. The most famous one of the goddess, Diana, was saved from export because she was found in the temple of the vestal virgin, not her own temple . No one knows why she was there, but she is now housed in a local museum. St. Paul provides a Christian link to Ephesus. He wanted to spread the gospel there, but was dissuaded. He was imprisoned for safekeeping. When released he continued on his way to more welcoming locations. The answer to the hostility in Ephesus was that one of the wealthiest men in town was in the business of making and selling miniature statues of Diana. If Paul converted the people to Christianity, his business would fail. He convinced a crowd of about 20,000 to kill Paul or drive him out. In the early 1900s, Kaiser Wilhelmin offered to build a railroad from Germany to Istanbul to Ephesus. The Ottomans didn’t know why, but it was too generous an offer to refuse. That’s one of the reasons they ended up on the German side of WWI. We did visit the small museum to see articles of daily life found during excavation. David and I whizzed through looking for only one item. I had to see the statue of Diana adorned with bull testicles. It’s awesome. Tonight was our farewell dinner. We exchanged contact info, took pictures, and bid fond farewells. Nothing schmatlzy. Our group was cohesive and well behaved. I don’t know that any fast friendships were made. It’s always an interesting dynamic seeing adults putting differences aside for the good of the group. Tomorrow we leave for the Izmir airport at 5:30 AM to fly to Istanbul. We leave Istanbul at 3:30PM for JFK. We’ll stay overnight again near JFK and be home on Thursday. It’s been fun having you with us on this journey. Thanks for your responses and reactions. It’s been too long since we’ve traveled. I hope to plan another trip soon. Toby