Ephesus

Ephesus is considered one of the great outdoor museums of Turkey, perhaps of the world…and the best preserved classical city in Europe. It was the grand capital of the Roman province of Asia and had over 250 000 inhabitants. It dates back to 6000 BC! After 150 years of excavation and restoration about 20% of the city has been unearthed.


We were warned about the insane crowds at Ephesus…The tour groups and cruise ship passengers take over the place in the mornings and the afternoons are unbearably hot. We decided to do the same thing we did in Pamukkale and come for the last 2 hours before closing. It was not crowded at all and considerably cooler so definitely the right decision.




It was amazing to see and such extensive ruins. They are working so hard to excavate and restore what they can. There are some very well preserved areas that were luxury apartments. They built a building over them to protect them and are working on a 200 000 piece puzzle trying to re-assemble all the broken marble floors and walls from the fragments they found…they believe they have 90% of the material and it’s just a matter of finding its place. What a crazy job. They have whole rooms that have been put back together this way and some of the mosaic floors are in great shape. The whole building had hot and cold running water even!

We spent a last night in Selcuk and flew to Goreme in Cappadocia yesterday afternoon. We found a great little bar owned by some Australians in this nice little town and had some food, drinks and smoked a hookah...we picked grape flavour but the previous smokers were smoking mint so technically we were smoking grint! Tomorrow we try strint (strawberry). We spent our night hanging out with some hilarious hot air balloon pilots (they're called Argonauts we discovered...not balloon driver's...I was scolded for calling them that!) Haha...Today we hike Rose and Red valley and tomorrow morning we are going hot air ballooning!!!!!