Ephesus

July 24, 2011, 4:49 pm
Filed under: Turkey

After visiting the ancient sites of Jerash and other ruins in Jordan last year, I was a little sceptical about all the Ephesus hype in Turkey. But I decided to give it a go anyways and I was not disappointed – Ephesus is one of the best preserved ancient sites of Europe.

The city was founded around 3,000 BC and was originally used as a place of worship for the Anatolian Goddess Diana. I strolled around the temple of Hadrian, the Marble Way (where the rich people must have lived) and the library of Celsus which still has niches for storing the papyrus roles. The real highlight of Ephesus was the great theatre built under emperor Claudius. It managed to seat up to 25.000 spectators and was first used for all types of theatre including gladiator fights.

There were millions of tourists there (especially Korean tour buses) but the site is still big enough to escape the main crowds most of the time. And after all, all those people give you a feeling of what life must have been like in Ephesus a long time ago – when it was home to more than 200.000 inhabitants.