EPHESUS

October 4th

We arrived at the Port of Kusadasi in the morning where we boarded a bus for the drive inland to Ephesus, the ancient city of the goddess Artimeus, goddess of nature and fertility. St.Paul was run out of town because his preaching was hurting the sales of fertility idols. It used to be a port city but the river silted up the coastline so that it is now six miles inland. At its peak, it was home to over two hundred thousand people.


We entered the town from the High point of the city, the acropolis. This area was reserved of the rich and the rulers and featured many small temples and monuments as well as government buildings. At the end of the public area, there was a very large theater. The rest of the valley was where all the common folks lived. It streached out for over a mile, ruins everywhere.
The public toilet was almost modern in its features, with running water beneath the seats and running water in front for cleaning up. It was open air for odor control and had a bandstand in the middle, supposedly to cover up all the noises. The only thing it didn't have was stalls. no privacy here. There were seats enough for 48 people, approximately,( as our tour guide said, to cover any mistakes). This was a public toilet. All the homes had their own private versions complete with running water. No wonder the sea receded after several centuries of 200,000 people. Made for some pretty rich soil.
Next to the Temple of Artemus, Ephesus was known for it's world famous Library, a rival of the libray at Alexandria. It was two stories. The first story facade was decorated by statues of four women, Knowledge, Wisdom, Charity, and Patience. The windows faced east for the best morning light. Across the way was a large brothel but no one has been able to find the tunnel that was supposedly its connection to the Library. (dear, I'm going to the library to do some "research")
And of course there were cats everywhere. They did care about the ruins, only which tourist s had food. Our tour guide, Rea, did not just bring table scraps from breakfast she also brought a box of cat food so she could feed them all.

The cats did not have any respect for antiquities, note the tile floor.