Lost in Wonder
Day 8
First night in Bergama I was the only one in, last night there were 12 of us and a right UN it was too. In the end I got stuck chatting over breakfast this morning and I didn’t get away quite as quickly as I had hoped. Still I made quite good time on the 3 buses it took to get me to Ephesus and I managed to look around town.
I had been a good boy and headed to the museum in Bergama before breakfast (and anyone stirring, including the German). Once again signs warned me ‘Antiquities cannot be taken out of Turkey’-all sites and musea seem to say this. Does that mean I can take a bust to the park for lunch, just not across the border? It might refer to the ancient coins I’ve been offered. Apparently they’re worthless in Turkey, but in the UK they’d…and then the pitch concludes with a whistle. Think of it, something so valuable that you couldn’t even imagine the wealth, all you could do is whistle. So far I’ve resisted the temptations to throw all my clothes away and fill my bags with these one way tickets to a millionaire’s life. I must be mad.
Anyway, the museum was pretty good and had a number of interesting pieces, including quite a lot of headless statues. Most noticeable was what wasn’t there. If you ever go to Berlin, look out for this.
This is the temple of Zeus that was part of the Acropolis in Pergamon (let’s use the alternative spelling today). The kindly German archaeologist who worked on the site half inched it. Still, there’s some worse steeling I read about, but more of that anon.
You have to like a place that has marking on the map for ‘Aquaducts’ and they have some quite creditable remnants. I hadn’t realised quite how biblical it is in Selcuk. St. Paul lived here: he can’t have been too sociable though, as he wrote his ‘Epistle to the Ephesians’, rather than just talking to them. I guess he dropped by as St. John was living here with the Virgin Mary (sounds like the start of a Da Vinci Code sequel). It was here that John wrote Revelation, which I read when studying Durer and I remember as cracking read. If you like End of the World type stuff. So it’s only appropriate that he had Basilica built here in his honour. And a pretty bloody big honour it was too. Here’s the way in
They’d have made it bigger if the site could have supported anything more massive. As it is they settled, in the 6th century, for what would today be the 7th biggest cathedral in the world-110m by 140. A 14th century earthquake knocked it down and locals pilfered a lot of the ruins, but it’s still a great maze to wander round.
It feels a little like walking across a building plan as there are very few remaining dividing walls. Or to put it another way, I felt like Joey getting into his map. They’ve made a number of attempts with models and drawing to show what is and what was:
All this overlooks the Mosque of Isa Bey Cami, which is also a fair size and took a pounding from both the quaking earth and local builders. In the morning in Bergama I’d read about tombstones on which turbans denoted the status of the interred. Here they had some
The main event here is of course Ephesus: I’ve already lost count of the number of people who’ve told me it’s better than Pergamon. On the way back from Ephesus tomorrow I shall be visiting the Temple of Artemis. The Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World and in my anoraky Nick Hornby style of travelling this has made me think about the list of 7 ancient wonders.
1. The Temple of Artemis, Selcuk (right here, right now)
2. The Mausoleum of Helicarnassus, Bodrum (my next stop)
3. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Iraq (give that one a miss)
4. Pharos of Alexandria, Egypt (going there)
5. Pyramids of Giza, mark me up for that one
6. Statue of Zeus, Olympia, Greece
7. Colossus of Rhodes, Greece. Quite near by actually, but won’t be fitting it in.
Aside from the pyramids the other 6 exist is spheres somewhere between near mythical and a pile of ruins, however I shall visit the three sites as well as the pyramids. So with Petra, by the time I finish this trip I’ll have visited 4 ancient wonders and 5 of the new ones, and all but one in the last 12 months. Well, I haven’t had many stats thus far. Which reminds me I should raise my bat; Turkey is country no 50.
As I’ve just indicated there’s not a lot I shall actually see at the Temple of Artemis-just one column is upright. In some small part this is because the locals treated it as B&Q-the stone has been used in the mosque and basilica in Selcuk as well as Aya Sofya back in Istanbul. Guess where else you can find some? Go on. Yup, the good old British Museum. I sometimes wonder why I bothered leaving England, the whole bloody world is in the British Museum. And we’re not giving any of it back.
Day 9
So what can I say about Ephesus? A lot and probably far too much. So I think a few facts and some photos will best serve the purpose. Beginning at the end, Ephesus was hit by 3 earthquakes in 15 years in the 4th century. That set it on the road to being destroyed, abandoned and then attacked by the archaeologists. For the Romans it was the Bank and then Capital of Asia Minor. A city of a quarter of a million, which must have been massive for the time, Ephesus had the public and private buildings to reflect its wealth, size and influence. The tourist board are claiming its the best preserved city outside of Pompeii (I guess they don’t count Rome). Whatever else it may, it is worth visiting Turkey just to see Ephesus. So what’s it all look like then?
This is the Odeon, which means little theatre. This one seats 1,500. We’ll see why it’s little later.
The Fountain of Pollio and the Temple of Domitian.
An invader.
The Fountain of Trajan.
Clever shape the arch, no need for mortar.
The Temple of Hadrian.
The public toilets. You can see where Eavis gets the idea for Glasto. Normally all this would be breathtaking, amazing and all the rest. But then Ephesus has 2 of the most wonderful buildings I’ve seen.
The Library of Celsus and The 25,000 Grand Theatre. The library strikes me as a warm up of sorts for Petra.
In the 60s they excavated some of the dwellings, although the fabric was quite damaged, mosaics and frescoes have somehow survived in goodly numbers.
Had to get in a rather precarious position for that last one. And there’s plenty more to excavate.
They did have slaves the Romans, but they did do things in style.
The hostel gave me a lift up to Ephesus, but I walked back. Firstly past the grotto of the 7 sleepers.
This isn’t much to look at, but it is the site of quite a legend. The seven, who I believe had no affiliation to Blake, hid in the caves and were walled in. When the walls came down in an earthquake 2 centuries later, the 7 emerged (very Indiana Jones). The best bit is that no one saw them; they were ‘discovered’ when they tried to get something to eat. They were arrested for proffering dodgy money! Eventually it was determined the money was old rather forged and the legend was born.
I also discovered that Turkish pancakes are to be strongly recommended.
My last 2 stops on the way back were the Temple of Artemis and the museum. After the grotto I managed to cut through an orange orchard and a graveyard to get to the Wonder. Like me, you’ll have to use your imagination.
I think I’ve got the buses sorted to get me to Bodrum tomorrow and the next wonder (this is getting a bit Dan Cruickshank) and then onto Antalya. Time will tell.
Day 10
You can hear the tourists-‘I love Bodrum, it’s go so much character. It’s a maze of streets you can just lose yourself in.’ Of course if I wanted to get bloody lost I’d leave the map behind, ignore the street signs or just get drunk.
I got lost in Bodrum.
Three times.
Map was crap. Street signs were rubbish. Navigator was dreadful. All of which contributed to me not liking Bodrum.
Give me some credit, it takes more than getting lost. I am very glad it is out of season. My hostel is above a British Bar (where some really tuneless karaoke is going on), down the street a Scottish pub has closed down. You can get a fry up. The food’s double the price of all the other places I’ve been since Istanbul and isn’t as good. There’s club bragging if you haven’t been there, you haven’t been to Bodrum. It’s rather touristy shall we say. Still, this was always a one night stand and I’m glad to have seen the Mausoleum’s remains and had a bit of an idea, so worth the slight detour and overpriced lunch.
The Mausoleum of Helicarnassus was built in 353BC. Rather depressingly it was still intact, although buried, in the 16th century when some French tore great lumps out of it to reinforce the castle from impending Ottoman attack.
The French promptly lost, which makes it worse in my mind. Of the 6 deceased wonders of the ancient world, I reckon this one came closest to joining the pyramids in the 21st century (interestingly the pyramids are the oldest of the 7).
In the Mausoleum was buried…..Mausolus. Although I think I wrecked the spelling there, you can see what happened-he built the mother of all burial spots and got a whole genre of building named after him. Old Mausolus was a bit up himself, so he’d have loved that. When asked for the reasons why he was constructing something so, well, ludicrous in his memory, he partly justified it by saying ‘I was handsome and tall’. Well of course.
There a lot more to see here than at the temple of Artemis, not in terms of ruins, but there’s a little museum with some history and reconstructions. It seems a bit odd that some decent effort has been made, while just a 3 hour bus ride away there are goats grazing round Artemis and no more information than a sign.
All of this set me to wondering how brilliant it would be if someone recreated the 6 alongside the sites of their respective ruins. If I had Bill Gates’ money…….well, hopefully I’d spend it the way he has, but it’s a nice thought.
And if you can’t make it to Bodrum, fear not. There’s some Mausoleum in the British Museum.
The castle is meant to be the main sight here,
which also hosts the few other sights. I was disappointed as the Museum of Underwater Archaeology turned out to be a museum of items found underwater and now on display in the dry. I’d interpreted the title in the same way as many 6 year olds before me.
While it is fascinating that there was sea bound trade going on in 4,000 BC, think about that, there is only so much you can do with what you rescued. What they were trading was food, wine oil and so on. As a result the vast majority of what you can see are amphora. They can get a bit samey. It’s a little cheap to say they’ve made a museum out of a bunch of 6,000 year old Tesco delivery boats sunk to the bottom of the sea, but……
There really are an awful lot of Koreans here. At Ephesus there are signs in Turkish, English and Korean. From what I can tell, all the oriental folk, which must 80-90% of the tourists, are Korean. Perhaps they’re here now to avoid the sort of people that come to Bodrum in high season. The locals don’t seem all that happy about it-I’ve had several saying to me that the Koreans are cheap, mean and the like. Seems they’re not big spenders. All the Koreans I’ve met have been lovely and tremendously polite. I was chatting to a guy last night who wanted some tips on the rest of Europe. We nattered for 10 mins or so. And then he presented me with a keyring with a Korean drum on. His friend asked me if I knew the Korean drums. I told her I remembered them from the opening ceremony of the Seoul Olympics. She was very impressed, remarking it was 20 years ago. I was thinking it’s only 5 Games. Well they had only just met me and we hadn’t got onto the history of the Masters or Roger Federer.
I hope there won’t be a repeat of the police roadblocks and passport checks on tomorrow’s bus. We were stopped twice on the way down here. I do wonder what or who they’re hoping to find. I may have been lucky to get through the first one as I emerged from my iPod with a ‘what the hell do you want?’ look on my face before realising the bloke in uniform was probably asking for my passport. They do still seem to have a lot of army here: I’ve seen bases everywhere and there’s a recruiting station in Bodrum with an armed guard and a sign saying ‘military installation, keep out’. Must make the recruitment side of things a bit tricky. Maybe they shout at people on the street.
8 hours to Antalya tomorrow, after my record on night buses, I decided to blow the day and travel in daylight. I’ll probably sleep the whole way now……
First night in Bergama I was the only one in, last night there were 12 of us and a right UN it was too. In the end I got stuck chatting over breakfast this morning and I didn’t get away quite as quickly as I had hoped. Still I made quite good time on the 3 buses it took to get me to Ephesus and I managed to look around town.
I had been a good boy and headed to the museum in Bergama before breakfast (and anyone stirring, including the German). Once again signs warned me ‘Antiquities cannot be taken out of Turkey’-all sites and musea seem to say this. Does that mean I can take a bust to the park for lunch, just not across the border? It might refer to the ancient coins I’ve been offered. Apparently they’re worthless in Turkey, but in the UK they’d…and then the pitch concludes with a whistle. Think of it, something so valuable that you couldn’t even imagine the wealth, all you could do is whistle. So far I’ve resisted the temptations to throw all my clothes away and fill my bags with these one way tickets to a millionaire’s life. I must be mad.
Anyway, the museum was pretty good and had a number of interesting pieces, including quite a lot of headless statues. Most noticeable was what wasn’t there. If you ever go to Berlin, look out for this.
This is the temple of Zeus that was part of the Acropolis in Pergamon (let’s use the alternative spelling today). The kindly German archaeologist who worked on the site half inched it. Still, there’s some worse steeling I read about, but more of that anon.
You have to like a place that has marking on the map for ‘Aquaducts’ and they have some quite creditable remnants. I hadn’t realised quite how biblical it is in Selcuk. St. Paul lived here: he can’t have been too sociable though, as he wrote his ‘Epistle to the Ephesians’, rather than just talking to them. I guess he dropped by as St. John was living here with the Virgin Mary (sounds like the start of a Da Vinci Code sequel). It was here that John wrote Revelation, which I read when studying Durer and I remember as cracking read. If you like End of the World type stuff. So it’s only appropriate that he had Basilica built here in his honour. And a pretty bloody big honour it was too. Here’s the way in
They’d have made it bigger if the site could have supported anything more massive. As it is they settled, in the 6th century, for what would today be the 7th biggest cathedral in the world-110m by 140. A 14th century earthquake knocked it down and locals pilfered a lot of the ruins, but it’s still a great maze to wander round.
It feels a little like walking across a building plan as there are very few remaining dividing walls. Or to put it another way, I felt like Joey getting into his map. They’ve made a number of attempts with models and drawing to show what is and what was:
All this overlooks the Mosque of Isa Bey Cami, which is also a fair size and took a pounding from both the quaking earth and local builders. In the morning in Bergama I’d read about tombstones on which turbans denoted the status of the interred. Here they had some
The main event here is of course Ephesus: I’ve already lost count of the number of people who’ve told me it’s better than Pergamon. On the way back from Ephesus tomorrow I shall be visiting the Temple of Artemis. The Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World and in my anoraky Nick Hornby style of travelling this has made me think about the list of 7 ancient wonders.
1. The Temple of Artemis, Selcuk (right here, right now)
2. The Mausoleum of Helicarnassus, Bodrum (my next stop)
3. Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Iraq (give that one a miss)
4. Pharos of Alexandria, Egypt (going there)
5. Pyramids of Giza, mark me up for that one
6. Statue of Zeus, Olympia, Greece
7. Colossus of Rhodes, Greece. Quite near by actually, but won’t be fitting it in.
Aside from the pyramids the other 6 exist is spheres somewhere between near mythical and a pile of ruins, however I shall visit the three sites as well as the pyramids. So with Petra, by the time I finish this trip I’ll have visited 4 ancient wonders and 5 of the new ones, and all but one in the last 12 months. Well, I haven’t had many stats thus far. Which reminds me I should raise my bat; Turkey is country no 50.
As I’ve just indicated there’s not a lot I shall actually see at the Temple of Artemis-just one column is upright. In some small part this is because the locals treated it as B&Q-the stone has been used in the mosque and basilica in Selcuk as well as Aya Sofya back in Istanbul. Guess where else you can find some? Go on. Yup, the good old British Museum. I sometimes wonder why I bothered leaving England, the whole bloody world is in the British Museum. And we’re not giving any of it back.
Day 9
So what can I say about Ephesus? A lot and probably far too much. So I think a few facts and some photos will best serve the purpose. Beginning at the end, Ephesus was hit by 3 earthquakes in 15 years in the 4th century. That set it on the road to being destroyed, abandoned and then attacked by the archaeologists. For the Romans it was the Bank and then Capital of Asia Minor. A city of a quarter of a million, which must have been massive for the time, Ephesus had the public and private buildings to reflect its wealth, size and influence. The tourist board are claiming its the best preserved city outside of Pompeii (I guess they don’t count Rome). Whatever else it may, it is worth visiting Turkey just to see Ephesus. So what’s it all look like then?
This is the Odeon, which means little theatre. This one seats 1,500. We’ll see why it’s little later.
The Fountain of Pollio and the Temple of Domitian.
An invader.
The Fountain of Trajan.
Clever shape the arch, no need for mortar.
The Temple of Hadrian.
The public toilets. You can see where Eavis gets the idea for Glasto. Normally all this would be breathtaking, amazing and all the rest. But then Ephesus has 2 of the most wonderful buildings I’ve seen.
The Library of Celsus and The 25,000 Grand Theatre. The library strikes me as a warm up of sorts for Petra.
In the 60s they excavated some of the dwellings, although the fabric was quite damaged, mosaics and frescoes have somehow survived in goodly numbers.
Had to get in a rather precarious position for that last one. And there’s plenty more to excavate.
They did have slaves the Romans, but they did do things in style.
The hostel gave me a lift up to Ephesus, but I walked back. Firstly past the grotto of the 7 sleepers.
This isn’t much to look at, but it is the site of quite a legend. The seven, who I believe had no affiliation to Blake, hid in the caves and were walled in. When the walls came down in an earthquake 2 centuries later, the 7 emerged (very Indiana Jones). The best bit is that no one saw them; they were ‘discovered’ when they tried to get something to eat. They were arrested for proffering dodgy money! Eventually it was determined the money was old rather forged and the legend was born.
I also discovered that Turkish pancakes are to be strongly recommended.
My last 2 stops on the way back were the Temple of Artemis and the museum. After the grotto I managed to cut through an orange orchard and a graveyard to get to the Wonder. Like me, you’ll have to use your imagination.
I think I’ve got the buses sorted to get me to Bodrum tomorrow and the next wonder (this is getting a bit Dan Cruickshank) and then onto Antalya. Time will tell.
Day 10
You can hear the tourists-‘I love Bodrum, it’s go so much character. It’s a maze of streets you can just lose yourself in.’ Of course if I wanted to get bloody lost I’d leave the map behind, ignore the street signs or just get drunk.
I got lost in Bodrum.
Three times.
Map was crap. Street signs were rubbish. Navigator was dreadful. All of which contributed to me not liking Bodrum.
Give me some credit, it takes more than getting lost. I am very glad it is out of season. My hostel is above a British Bar (where some really tuneless karaoke is going on), down the street a Scottish pub has closed down. You can get a fry up. The food’s double the price of all the other places I’ve been since Istanbul and isn’t as good. There’s club bragging if you haven’t been there, you haven’t been to Bodrum. It’s rather touristy shall we say. Still, this was always a one night stand and I’m glad to have seen the Mausoleum’s remains and had a bit of an idea, so worth the slight detour and overpriced lunch.
The Mausoleum of Helicarnassus was built in 353BC. Rather depressingly it was still intact, although buried, in the 16th century when some French tore great lumps out of it to reinforce the castle from impending Ottoman attack.
The French promptly lost, which makes it worse in my mind. Of the 6 deceased wonders of the ancient world, I reckon this one came closest to joining the pyramids in the 21st century (interestingly the pyramids are the oldest of the 7).
In the Mausoleum was buried…..Mausolus. Although I think I wrecked the spelling there, you can see what happened-he built the mother of all burial spots and got a whole genre of building named after him. Old Mausolus was a bit up himself, so he’d have loved that. When asked for the reasons why he was constructing something so, well, ludicrous in his memory, he partly justified it by saying ‘I was handsome and tall’. Well of course.
There a lot more to see here than at the temple of Artemis, not in terms of ruins, but there’s a little museum with some history and reconstructions. It seems a bit odd that some decent effort has been made, while just a 3 hour bus ride away there are goats grazing round Artemis and no more information than a sign.
All of this set me to wondering how brilliant it would be if someone recreated the 6 alongside the sites of their respective ruins. If I had Bill Gates’ money…….well, hopefully I’d spend it the way he has, but it’s a nice thought.
And if you can’t make it to Bodrum, fear not. There’s some Mausoleum in the British Museum.
The castle is meant to be the main sight here,
which also hosts the few other sights. I was disappointed as the Museum of Underwater Archaeology turned out to be a museum of items found underwater and now on display in the dry. I’d interpreted the title in the same way as many 6 year olds before me.
While it is fascinating that there was sea bound trade going on in 4,000 BC, think about that, there is only so much you can do with what you rescued. What they were trading was food, wine oil and so on. As a result the vast majority of what you can see are amphora. They can get a bit samey. It’s a little cheap to say they’ve made a museum out of a bunch of 6,000 year old Tesco delivery boats sunk to the bottom of the sea, but……
There really are an awful lot of Koreans here. At Ephesus there are signs in Turkish, English and Korean. From what I can tell, all the oriental folk, which must 80-90% of the tourists, are Korean. Perhaps they’re here now to avoid the sort of people that come to Bodrum in high season. The locals don’t seem all that happy about it-I’ve had several saying to me that the Koreans are cheap, mean and the like. Seems they’re not big spenders. All the Koreans I’ve met have been lovely and tremendously polite. I was chatting to a guy last night who wanted some tips on the rest of Europe. We nattered for 10 mins or so. And then he presented me with a keyring with a Korean drum on. His friend asked me if I knew the Korean drums. I told her I remembered them from the opening ceremony of the Seoul Olympics. She was very impressed, remarking it was 20 years ago. I was thinking it’s only 5 Games. Well they had only just met me and we hadn’t got onto the history of the Masters or Roger Federer.
I hope there won’t be a repeat of the police roadblocks and passport checks on tomorrow’s bus. We were stopped twice on the way down here. I do wonder what or who they’re hoping to find. I may have been lucky to get through the first one as I emerged from my iPod with a ‘what the hell do you want?’ look on my face before realising the bloke in uniform was probably asking for my passport. They do still seem to have a lot of army here: I’ve seen bases everywhere and there’s a recruiting station in Bodrum with an armed guard and a sign saying ‘military installation, keep out’. Must make the recruitment side of things a bit tricky. Maybe they shout at people on the street.
8 hours to Antalya tomorrow, after my record on night buses, I decided to blow the day and travel in daylight. I’ll probably sleep the whole way now……
posted by Poll Star at
6:30 PM
2 Comments:
Merhaba Pollstar,
As a resident of Selcuk, I enjoyed reading your post on Ephesus and other sites here. Great photos, including the best one of gozleme I've seen!
You mentioned later on: "All of this set me to wondering how brilliant it would be if someone recreated the 6 alongside the sites of their respective ruins. If I had Bill Gates’ money…….well, hopefully I’d spend it the way he has, but it’s a nice thought."
The Selcuk local government agrees with you, and has proposed to partially 'recreate' the Temple of Artemis. Failing a lack of funding for that massive undertaking (if Mr. Gates is unavailable to assist), they are working on updated signage and information at the site. No idea when that will be complete, but at least they are making an attempt.
By
Bazaar Bayar, at 6:50 PM
that's the best comment I think I've ever read on a blog, and certainly the best comment on this one. Interesting and informative... and clearly written by someone who has both read your post and shown an interest.
Excellent!
Good work as always mate. As with all these ruins of classical antiquity, can you get those helpful flip up books with photos you can overlay tranparencies on with artist's impressions of what the sites may have looked like? Essential, I would say.
By
swisslet, at 8:33 PM
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