Efes "Ephesus"

[ode1299]

Efes, known in English as Ephesus, is Turkey's most important antique city, and one of the best preserved and restored. Dating back 3,000 years, one can still stroll for hours along its streets, past temples, theatres, libraries, houses, and statues.

This was a place for cults. Cybele, the Goddess of Anatolia was replaced by Artemis for whom the most sumptuous temple was built in Efes considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.


The library of Celsus, one of the most famous monument in Ephesus. Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus had been tribune in the Fourth legion Scythica, was consul in 92, and governor of Asia in 106-107, but never saw the building, which was erected by his son Caius Julius Aquila in 110. The library contained 12,000 scrolls.




The theater of Ephesus. Its construction was started in the hellenistic age, but the Ephesians made a beginning with its renewal during the reign of the emperor Claudius (41-54). Under Nero (54-68), the stage was constructed. The decorations can be dated to the reign of Trajan (98-117).It has a seating capacity about 24,000 people.




The commercial agora (market), constructed in the hellenistic period, but rebuilt several times by the Romans. Rebuilding was done during the reigns of Augustus, Nero, Caracalla, and in the fourth century. It proves that the market still had an important function for the hundreds of thousands Ephesians.
The commercial agora. It measured 110 x 110 meters and was surrounded by porticoes.




Gate of Mazaeus and Mithradates, built in 4 or 3 BCE and dedicated to the emperor Augustus. This was the monumental entrance to the commercial agora.




Statues of Heracles in the Street of the curetes, perhaps the site of a famous exorcism by Apollonius of Tyana. The statues were made in the fourth century but seem to replace an older monument.




The temple of Hadrian in the Street of the curetes. It was dedicated in 118, almost immediately after Hadrian's accession.

[balleny]

http://www.oeai.at/eng/ausland/ephesos.html

I guess you reconsidered your recent statement "Everyone knows the hostility of Austrians on us.". Otherwise it would be difficult to explain the fact that Austrian archeologists have been excavating in Ephesos for more than 100 years, and Austrian companies made the donations and supplied the technical expertise for the reconstruction of the city (the reconstruction of the facade of the Celsus library in the 1980s - you show the picture without mentioning the name - was revolutionary then) and have returned a lot of items, which have already been in Vienna (Ottoman Turkey was not really interested), to the Turkish Republic and subsequently to the new museum in Selcuk, only to be allowed to go on digging and funding.

btw don't forget to mention Efes beer ;-)

[Jan Kazimierz]

Unfortunatly Ephesos is a nightmare because of the tourists, and of the Austrians..

I've been there three times now and everytime the place get's more touristic. Next to that excavations don't proceed very efficiently..

PS dont have time to explain right now..

[Kscott]

Great pictures, is it hard to get out their, or is it close to a city?

[Jan Kazimierz]

It's very close to Selçuk. It very easily accesible on foot, about 3 km..

When I first visited the site, there was only a controlled entrance at one point, and by foot, you could easily visit the entire area.
But nowadays, the Turks are very keen at getting all the tourists out of their buses at one particular point, ask an incredible fee (since the turks
do nothing on archeology) and are very annoying towards people who explore the ruins, away from the normal tourist route.

I can recommend everyone that goes there to get there in the evening, since it's opend until after sunset (20:30 local time) and at that time there are certainly not tourists around,
even the guards go home. Then you can go everywhere at you own will..

[Garbarsardar]

Ancient Greek cities are truly amazing places. They always fill me with awe. Of course it is also the clarity of the sky and the mild weather of the Aegean sea that greatly contributes to this feeling. Ancient Greek civilization was so cool...

Although the city now restored is the Roman continuation of the Greek city, the original Ephesus was also famous being the birth place of:

Heraclitus of Ephesus (Greek Ἡράκλειτος Herakleitos) (about 535 - 475 BC), known as "The Obscure" (Greek Αινικτίν "Ainiktin"), was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Ephesus in Asia Minor. The details of Heraclitus' life are almost completely unknown. "Reliable information is limited to the fact that he was a native of Ephesus, on the coast of Asia Minor north of Miletus, and that his father's name was Bloson."[1] Heraclitus is the first person in the history of the western world to have put forward a robust philosophical system. His writings have later influences upon Socrates and Plato. 19th Century Philosophy has also paid close attention to Heraclitus.

he said quite nice things:

"Everything flows, nothing stands still." (Πάντα ῥεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει)

"By cosmic rule, as day yields night, so winter summer, war peace, plenty famine. All things change. Fire penetrates the lump of myrrh, until the joining bodies die and rise again in smoke called incense."

"Men do not know how that which is drawn in different directions harmonises with itself. The harmonious structure of the world depends upon opposite tension like that of the bow and the lyre."

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not." (ποταμος τος ατος μβαίνομέν τε κα οκ μβαίνομεν. εμέν τε κα οκ εμεν.)

[Shaun]

Nice pics, i remember going there.... in the middle of summer! Man it was hot!

[gloria04]

I guess you re the recent statement We all know, the hostility of the Austrian us.." Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain, that the Austrian archaeologists excavating Ephesus more than 100 years, Austrian companies made donations and to provide technical advice to the city reconstruction reconstruction of the facade Celsus Library 1980 - looks like a picture without mention the name - was revolutionary then and have returned many items that have already been in Vienna (Ottoman Turkey was not really interested, the Republic of Turkey and then to a new museum in Selçuk, I just can not go to dig up the funding.


Ancient Ephesus

[Colonel Cleg McLeg]

I went there in the summer. Fantastic place, despite the my fellow tourists crawling all over the ruins and getting into every damn photo I took.

Still, I managed to get some decent snaps:

[Beorn]

Been there in 2003. The most interesting remnants of any greek city I've been, and they are many