Kusadasi, Turkey was the port of call for today on another beautiful sunny day on the Aegean Sea. It is one of the most popular seaside resorts in Turkey. During the summer high season the 50,000 population are overrun by some five million tourists. Fortuntely, we are stopping just as the tourist season is beginning - a good time to come according to our guide as you can make the best bargains when shopping.
The tour today was to the ancient ruins of Ephesus, the most important ruins in Turkey and considered one of the most magnificent in the world. This open air archeological museum is only a part of what is still buried in the surrounding poppy covered hillside. The Odeon, Fountain of Trajan, steam baths of Scholastika, temple of Hadrian and facade of the Library of Celsius are as impressive as the public latrines with running water. You walk the Arcadian Way where Anthony and Cleopatra once rode in procession. The Grand Theater, where guests were testing the echo acoustics by singing (group of Aussies did Waltzing Matilda while another lady recited poetry), had a capacity of 24,000 and was one of the largest in antiquity. It is also the theatre where St. Paul preached, only to be stoned and imprisoned for denouncing the Greek gods. (It is believed he escaped his prison during an earthquake - a regular occurence in the area).
One of the oddities at this site were the number of feral cats, sunning on the ancient mosaics or begging food from the visitors - they kept creeping out of holes in the walls.
The tour to the ruins wrapped up with a short play depicting the pomp and pageantry of ancient times, along with the gladiator brutal entertainment. Then we had to run the gauntlet of shops to the bus, with the aggressive shopkeepers constant refrain 'Now you see my shop!' After a couple hours in the hot sun, a fresh squeezed, icy cold orange juice was my shop purchase.
Our final stop of the tour was at a turkish carpet outlet back at the port, where we saw how the silk thread is made and watched a woman (only woman make the carpets) doing the double knot, thread by thread, one knot at a time in the construction. The carpet she had been working on for two months (four hours a day) had only a couple of inches (about five) complete on the three foot runner carpet. The owner explained that the design she is working on has 600 knots in every square inch of the intricate pattern.
While we sipped apple tea (or wine) and ate a hot herbal bread, the shops men rolled out samples of wool, cashmere, silk and cotton carpets - a sea of color. It was like going through an art gallery as each piece was exquisite as it was unrolled and spun around for viewing. This particular carpet shop won the international first prize in the US last year for a magnificent natural fibre (silk) that had taken two workers 18 months to complete. Can you imagine spending that much time on one project? Really beautiful work, and a few people even managed to purchase...free shipping to your home country. When you pick the carpet and purchase you sign the back so you know when FedEx delivers you know you have the carpet you paid for in Turkey.
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