On the advice of our hotel owner, we waited to depart for Ephesus until 3pm. He said that the site is very crowded earlier in the day with cruise ship excursions – good tip since there were still lots of people around when we visited. We had the taxi drop us at the upper gate so we had a downhill walk through the site. We did not purchase the audio tour since I had a guidebook, but it would have been worthwhile.

Per DK Eyewitness Travel Guidebook: originally a Greek city founded in 1000 BC, the city ruins standing on the site was founded by Alexander the Great in 4 BC and most surviving structures date from this Roman period.

Picture-heavy post ahead!

After we exited site, we caught a dolmus back to Selcuk. I’ll probably write more about dolmus’ in a future post, but these were everywhere and cheap transportation.

We had two big items on our must see list for this trip – Aya Sofia and Ephesus. Both were well worth the time, expense and effort. Astounding to imagine we walked the same places as Paul the Apostle. Very much a dream come true.

 

I haven’t mentioned that one of the best museums in all of Turkey, the Ephesus Museum, was closed for renovation when we visited. So disappointing! Not once in all the research we did leading up to this trip did we see anything about the museum closure.

After breakfast at the hotel we walk to the ruins of Basilica of St. John. The citadel above the ruins is closed, which is strange since hotel owner mentioned it had been recently renovated.

Basilica of St. John was built by Justinian in the 6th century over an existing shrine purportedly containing the tomb of John the Disciple. The site was leveled by an earthquake in the 1300’s, and restoration was begun in 1960 and continues today.

Afterwards, visit Artemis Temple

Little to see at Artemis Temple that can’t be seen from the Basilica.

Final thoughts – Basilica of St. John worth a quick visit but no need to see Artemis Temple if short on time.

 

 

As you can tell, we so very much enjoyed our travels in Turkey. The sights were awe inspiring, but what has stayed with us after all this time is the people. The vast majority of those we spoke to were interesting, kind and helpful. We still talk about it, and talk about when we will go back.

The terror bombings have understandably scared off many travelers, and it is disconcerting to know that bombings have occurred in areas we visited.

Will we return? Yes, but probably not to Istanbul. But not because of the bombings but because we saw everything we wanted to see and there is much remaining to visit.