After a wonderful evening ashore at Mykonos, we sailed out heading for Kusadasi, Turkey. It was a gorgeous morning when we arrived and three other cruise ships were in the dock. We all borded buses and headed out of town to the Virgin Marys house. What chaos! There must have been about 50 buses with tourists all come to see the same thing. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and just all too hot to be standing in the sun for about 2 hours. I am not religious so I am not sure why I elected to do this tour, cause I have to say queing for 2 hours to see a two roomed house was crazy!
After this we headed back down the hill to the ruins of Ephesus. Our guide took us through the ruins and down the streets, into the ( empty) latrines and stadiums to the end of the township. It took about 2 1/2 hours to amble our way through here (with masses of people again)and boy was it hot!
It was an amazing place and I loved it. There was lots of ruins, carved pieces and structures so you could get a feeling for what was once here. Originally 250,000 people lived here as it was an affluent town due to the river coming right up to it.
One of the impressive remains is the Celsus library which has 4 status in each corner. The library was ruined by fire caused by an earthquake in 262AD and another in the 10th century.
Within the ruins is the carved marble statue of Nike ( which is the symbol for the Nike brand) The carving is shaped like a tick, hence where Nike got their idea for their brand symbol.This was one of the most impressive places we visited.There is still active excavation of ruins being carried out today and the houses on the terrace are all being excavated currently.
The town of Kusadasi is filled with shops and pushy sellers just like Istanbul, however it is not so crowded and a lot less busy. Lanterns for sale in a tree.
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