Ephesus - A Highlight of our Trip

After seeing the ruins of Perge in October, I was looking forward to visiting Ephesus, regarded as the area's most stunning ancient ruins. This 'Odeum', or small theatre, was one of the first things we saw. Built in the 2nd century with a capacity between 1,500-2000, it was used for public meetings or the City Council. It was amazing to think that the excavation of Ephesus had been going on for 140 years....literally uncovering history that had been buried for thousands of years.

You could see that this area had been excavated.....dug down and uncovered.

We were walking on the marble streets of the ancient city of Ephesus, walking where the Apostle Paul walked when he visited Ephesus.

The Temple of Hadrian was dedicated in AD118 and rebuilt in the 4th century.

As we walked down the Street of Curetes we had our first glimpse of the Library of Celsus. Its stately two-level facade is being carefully restored.

It was absolutely stunning to behold this magnificent structure.

You can tell by the size of the people how large this is........

As we walked on we came to the Grand Theater which is still in use. It held 24,000 spectators with another 1000 in the vaulted galleries making a capacity of 25,000. It was here that Paul preached to the Ephesians during his stay in Ephesus between AD 53 and 55!

Harbor Street, also known a the Arcadian Way connected the port district with the center of town. It was one of the rare ancient streets to be lit by lamps at night. It was a port city but as the harbor silted up the city declined and today it is 25 miles from the Sea.

As we exited Ephesus we marveled at areas that were still to be excavated as pieces of structures were seen sticking out of the ground. You could pay to sit on this camel but we chose to take a picture instead.

The Chasing Gate is the entrance gate of the defense wall dated on the 6th or 7th centuries. Stones used here are material detached from the stadium at Ephesus.

From here we walked to the Church of St. John. It is generally agreed that he resided in Ephesus following his return from exile on the island of Patmos around 100 AD. The first church was built over his grave some years after his death but the great basilica is said to have been built by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century.

We were thankful for the beautiful on this day since we were walking on weathered, ancient marble streets where history was made thousands of years before........

Definitely a day to remember for a very long time.