Kat goes on holiday - MSC Preziosa Eastern Med (5th July 2014)

Soon after we came to the Temple of Artemis which we had specifically asked to visit as well. I must admit, it was a lot less impressive than I had imagined. There was basically nothing left of the Temple except its footprint and a few tumbled columns. It was a very large footprint though which gave some idea of the sheer scale of the Temple in its day.

The one column was standing tall, Atilla explained, had been re-erected in modern times. This lack of historical authenticity did not seem to bother the family of storks who were nesting at the top of it.

We stood in the shade of a mulberry tree whilst Atilla was telling us about the site and were visited by geese who were keen to scavenge mulberries from the ground. Atilla picked a couple from the tree and we tried them - a new experience for us both.

BTW - the nursery rhyme is completely wrong. They are most definitely very large trees and not bushes at all!

Atilla also pointed out the structures on the hill which he said were a mosque and a church coexisting in harmony. I can't recall which structures it was so I'm including a selection from that general direction.

Following this we drove to Ephesus, beating most of the tour buses. Atilla led us through at a fine pace and explained everything wonderfully. He attends regular training sessions by archeologists to stay on top of the discoveries and understanding of the site and this really came through in his tour. It was top quality!

The site itself was fascinating and much more extensive than we had realised. This was a large and busy town! As we progressed through it got more and more crowded and the day got hotter and hotter.

I’m going to post a selection of photos whatever explanation I can recall - if any. It was an amazing site but so much to take in!

Atilla giving us an overview of the ancient site - including the harbour which silted up over time and is now quite a distance away.

Terracotta water pipes

Whilst many of the buildings had marble facades, behind the marble was hard packed mud and rubble.

The columns fascinated me. As you can easily see, they are constructed in sections that are placed on top of each other, however less obvious is how they manage to remain there.

Each section has a roughened area in the middle, with grooves that act like veins and a hole bored through the middle. As the shaft is erected (I couldn't resist that particular composition of words) molten metal is poured in forming a solid core that reinforces the structure and holds it rigid. The remains of this are easily seen once you know what you are looking for.

Archway at the ground level entrance of the small amphitheatre

One of the spectators entrances at the top of the small amphitheatre

Obviously there has been reconstruction of this ancient structure.

Stairs in the amphitheatre

Inscribed columns

Closeup of inscriptions

One very common feature of our travels in ancient cities is that the ground is very uneven, worn and hard to walk on. By hard, I mean HARD! My feet ached so much! I could walk all day without tiring but my feet got very sore from all the cobblestones etc. Here they were also super slippery from millennia of feet wearing them down.

Elements of older structures were incorporated into newer ones

And of course no visit to Ephesus is complete without this:

History of the Nike of Samothrace & the Nike Symbol

Next was the street of the Curetes. The street was decorated by statues, wealthy homes, posh stores, memorials, temples, fountains, porticos. By this time it was incredibly hot and getting more and more crowded.

Poor Trajan only has his foot left on the statue meant to symbolise his dominion over the world.

Work continues despite the constant stream of tourists

These were a set of shops with apartments above. Each shop had its own unique mosaic that referred to the wares sold within. In the background you can see the protective structure over the top of the terraced houses. These required a separate ticket (and payment) to visit.

Before visiting the Terraced Houses (which was included as part of out tour) we had to make a quick toilet stop!

These ancient dunnies were amazingly hygienic and functional - more so than modern port-a-loos or long drops. They were also incredibly public and quite the social gathering place, which I would find a little inhibiting!

A constant stream of fresh water ran through a deep trench under the seats - carrying away waste and any resulting odour. In front of the seats was a shallower gutter in which more fresh water was diverted so that when people had finished using the toilets they could reach down and get water (on a sponge) to clean themselves. Naturally there was a hierarchy, and the higher you were in it the further upstream you got to sit! In addition, richer people would have their slaves sit for a while to warm up their seat before using it. In the centre of the toilets was a large square which we were told was used for various performances and entertainment.

Oh my this review is so amazing.........you are a natural.......I'm so glad you had a great experience Kat.............can't wait for the rest.............

After visiting the toilets, we went to the Terraced Houses. These are fascinating two storied structures constructed around 1BC as luxurious homes for the rich. The were constantly inhabited through to the 7th century AD when the silting up of the harbour led to many people moving away. Gradually they fell into disrepair and landslides filled them up - which ironically helped preserve them. There are around 78 rooms and different wall drawings of which 8 have been restored. In some of the rooms there were up to five drawings that had been drawn on each other at different times. It costs around 40,000 euros per room for restoration and so corporate sponsorship is sought to assist with this cost. The whole site brings in around 8 million lira a year from over 2 million visitors.

The entire complex is covered in a huge 'tent' which gives welcome respite from the sun. It is a wonderful idea and means that the site can be well preserved as they endeavour to restore it. Having said that, there was no air conditioning so it was very hot in there and its constant stairs and narrow gangways so a bit of exertion required. It costs extra to go inside but we felt it was well worth it.

You can see here a corner where there are multiple levels of fresco illustrating how the walls have been replastered and redecorated over the centuries. It amused me slightly that each time they did this the room would have got a little smaller. It also reminded me of when we bought our first house and had to strip back 4 layers of wall paper where the previous owners had just papered over the old each time.

What fascinated me is that this place is like the world's largest jigsaw puzzle. The sheer scope of what they are trying to do is mind-blowing. It would be nice to think that over time the paint peeled a little and maybe they had to dig away some dirt, but in reality they are faced with tens of thousands of small pieces of marble etc that they are trying to piece together again. And they are actually slowly making headway in this daunting task!

The marble panels on the walls are formed by cutting sheets of marble off a larger block (I still can't get my head around how they managed that!) and then putting the matching pieces together so they form a mirror image. This helped the archeologists piece them together again.

Here you can see 'B' scratched into both panels - one in mirror image - to indicate which panels should be placed together when it was first installed.

The frescos on the walls were amazing. I studied some of them when I did my Classics degree so it was wonderful to see them 'in the flesh'. Again, they were in the process of restoring some of them.

I am also hopelessly addicted to mosaics - as will become painfully obvious as we visit Istanbul then Paris. I adore them and find the whole process of creating them to be fascinating. So I took lots of photos of the mosaics here! They really were very beautiful!

As we excited the top of the terraced houses it was good to get back where there was a little breeze even though the weather was still very hot. From here we had an amazing view of the Marble Road - which stretches from the great theatre to the Celsus Library, next to the terraced houses.

But first the iconic Celsus Library!

A few more random architectural elements

We then headed down the Marble Road...

...where we stopped to admire what we were told is the first in history - an advertisement of the Brothel. There is a footprint on the advertisement, one finger showing the library, and other showing the brothel. The known explanation of this sign is that the footprint shows that one should turn at that point; the woman's head symbolizes the women waiting in the Brothel and the heart shows that the women are eager for love.

Following in that same mercantile spirit, we continued till we came to a large open area that used to be a huge market with 200 or more shops/stalls.

Our last stop at Ephesus was the great theatre which was constructed in the 3rd century BC and then enlarged in the Roman period. It is three stories high with 66 rows of seats and held 25,000 people. It was used not only for concerts and plays, but also for religious, political and philosophical discussions and for gladiator and animal fights.

The carpet co-op visit was fascinating. Here they showed us the silk worm cocoons which the silk worm spins around itself with one continuous thread that can be a mile long. These cocoons are then boiled to kill the worms and loosen the bonds of the thread. Using a interesting tool that looks a bit like a cut off bunch of straw, the worker dabs at the surface of the water, picking up the ends of dozens of unraveled fibres. These are then hooked over a device that then collected the unravelled threads into a skein of threads. These are later treated and dyed before being used for carpets and other textiles.

We were also shown an example of someone working at a massive loom to know a carpet. These carpets take months to complete using a double knotting technique which will (according to our guide) last for centuries. This centre is a co-op sponsored by the Turkish government. Here they train women in carpet weaving and supply them with looms, thread and patterns to take home. Women will work on and off for hours every day, amongst their other tasks and responsibilities, and when the carpets are complete they return them to the co-op to be sold. I like this model, and properly done it can be a significant source of training and income for women - which enriches families and societies as well as preserving irreplaceable cultural techniques.

The woman doing this was amazing! Her hands moved so fast they were almost a blur! He got her to slow down and show us each step several times and each time she speeded up again it was unreal how fast and deftly she was managing to knot these threads.

We were then taken to a large room where a team of two men unrolled and spun carpets like a pair of magicians! It was here that we ate the infamous non-lunch as we watched.

Obviously the intent was very clearly to get us to buy a carpet and they certainly were very beautiful! But almost impossible to tuck under our arm and schlep back to NZ - and I wasn't keen to trust the whole idea of them shipping it.

However, I coveted a carpet and last June we had had an unfortunate 'carpet vs wallpaper' incident in our stairwell when trying to get our kingsized mattress downstairs to be replaced with our new bedroom suite. This left an Italy shaped gash in the wallpaper in our stairwell and I had long had the feeling that a nice carpet from Turkey hung on the wall would be JUST the thing to cover up this unsightly mark.

We only wanted a small one but their prices made us gasp! We walked away three times before the price came down to something we were willing to pay. I won't reveal how much it was, but we later calculated that we managed to reduce the opening price to 47% so we were happy with that!

Happy they had made a sale, they then sewed rings on the back so it could be hung and packaged it up neatly in brown paper and a canvas bag so we could carry it home. It was all very professional though I think many people would have been daunted by how determined they were to make the sale. My husband and I regarded it as a game that we were happy to walk away from and we had a lot of fun haggling.