deva in paradise

After making sure DEVA was safely hauled out in the boatyard in Kos, we took the ferry across to Bodrum, Turkey. Yes, Turkey! Ephesus and Bodrum were two places on our list in Turkey that we missed earlier.

Once called Helicarnassus in ancient Roman Empire days, Bodrum today is a bustling little party town where vacationers from Europe and the East come during Summer. In December things settle down to a dull roar, although there is still lots to do and all the shops and sights are open. We booked a room in a little "boutique hotel" with a view of guess what, a CASTLE! The Turkish hosts lived up to what we have come to expect in our visits to this wonderful country. Totally charming and welcoming with big smiles and infectious enthusiasm.

We walked the waterfront from the "quiet" side of town our hotel was in to the castle on the old harbor.
The castle itself is a smaller version of the Knights of St John castle we saw in Rhodes, but every bit as magnificent. Like stepping back to the 16th century of medieval post-Roman times. Like other places we have visited in Turkey, the history of Bodrum goes back farther than that, to pre-Christian days. The ancient historian Herodotus, who lived here, is said to have written much of what we know today about the early Roman empire, and the pre-Roman civilizations that once occupied this Aegean coast.
Bodrum was a port city and it is here that many archaeological finds have been found underwater that tell us what life in the center of the Mediterranean world was like. There was a lot of shipping between Africa, the Middle East, Persia, and Europe, for example. There was even trade with Asia before the Suez canal was built. Wine was shipped all over the Mediterranean basin in large amphora, or clay jugs. Bronze and iron ingots were also found in the holds of ancient ships that lay on the bottom near Bodrum.

From Bodrum we rented a car for a land cruise up to Kusadasi where we based ourselves for another three days to tour ancient Ephesus and Selcuk At Kusadasi we stayed at a little beachfront area called Ladies Beach, so called because at one time many years ago men were not allowed there. Much of it was closed due to the "Winter season", but we found a quaint little restaurant with a wood burning stove in its center. The innkeeper toasted bread on the woodstove for our breakfast. Later in the evening a quartet of musicians played Turkish folk songs for a small gathering of about 10 visitors. As we have always found, Our Turkish hosts remembered us each time we visited and graced us with their warm hospitality and wonderful food.

From Kusadasi we drove our rental car to Ephesus, built on the waterfront nearly 3000 years ago, now some 10 miles inland due to silting. . It was once considered one of the most important cities of the Roman Empire, Nearby Selcuk was the site of the pre-Roman temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

On the way to Ephesus, we detoured into the nearby mountains for a stop at Sirinc, a little village next to wine vineyards and olive groves, where we sampled wines and bought some handcrafts.

Stepping into the marble city of Ephesus, one must pause and take a deep breath. One is walking on the paths of people of three thousand years ago, including some of the the most important people of human history. The story of Artemis, which marks the earliest part of Ephesian culture. is nothing short of remarkable. Before Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity or Islam, people of this part of the world worshipped Warrior Women called Amazons. Yes, its true! Fans of Xena the Warrior Princess take heart. The Temple of Artemis was built 8 centuries BC to honor one of them. Her statue lies in the museum of Ephesus today, kept indoors for safety. There is only an open field with one standing column on the site of the original temple. Many items that were found in archaeological digs are kept in the adjacent museum today.

According to Debby, if you are into boobs, this is the Goddess for you, as she has 18 of them!
(actually some historians say her costume was decorated with preserved bull scrotums, a more masculine symbol of fertility, but this is another story).

Ephesus itself, built much later, and rebuilt several times in the late BC and early AD period, is a jewel of a ancient city, with marble colonnades and many large buildings still standing. One of them, the library of Celsus, was rebuilt by Austrian and other European archaeologists and engineers between 1970 and 1978, using 14,000 laborers at a donated cost of many millions of dollars. The library, built in 135 AD once held over 12,000 books. A testament to the literacy of the Roman empire inhabitants, and to the importance in their culture of education and preservation of history. There are statues to most of the Roman emperors and their many gods and goddesses, all over the landscape and in the nearby museum. This is where one can see Zeus, Aphrodite, Nike, and many others. The Grand Theater of Ephesus (more like a stadium), the centerpiece of Ephesus, is built on three levels and could seat 25,000 people comfortably on marble benches (if one considers marble comfy).

The apostle John is said to have lived in and near Ephesus after fleeing Jerusalem, and this is where he wrote much of his entries to the new testament of the Bible. The Virgin Mary, whom John was the designated by Jesus Christ to be caretaker, also lived here on a secluded hilltop. Much of that period in early AD they were in hiding from the Roman soldiers who persecuted Christians. We drove 8 kilometers up a winding mountain road to the remote site of her former home, now marked by a small stone chapel which has been visited by 5 popes and thousands of visitors every year. The Virgin Mary, mentioned 5 times in the Koran, is worshiped by Muslims and Christians alike. A large basilica dedicated to her was built in Ephesus in the 4th century AD, the ruins of which are there next to the many other structures that preceded it.

Some 100 years following John's 53AD death, a large Basilica dedicated to him was erected on the site of his tomb near Ephesus, the ruins of which can be seen today. Later yet, a castle and a mosque were erected by the Ottomans close by, but neither desecrated the magnificent site of St Johns cathedral, which is today still a respected shrine by the predominantly Muslim Turkish people.

Visiting this ancient place is cause for considerable thought. Artemis and Ephesus were a center of civilization from 1000 BC to about 1400 AD. It saw the evolution of religion go from polytheism and what is now now considered mythology to the present monothiestic Christianity and Islam. It started with the ancient Lydians, then the Greeks, sacked by the Visigoths in 400 AD, , fought over during the Crusades and Medieval times, occupied by the Ottomans until it was abandoned in about 1450AD. The scientific record says it was earthquakes and mosquito-borne malaria that ultimately caused its collapse.

It takes a while to wrap the modern mind around what the world must have been like like in the time of Artemis. Oral communication was the dominant human interaction, yet ideas and trading stock were transmitted over vast distances by people who traveled afar by land and sea. The valued commodities of past millenia: spices, silk, bronze, iron, and gold, all important in their time, ceased to be relevant in later periods. One cannot help but think this history might repeat itself with the 21st century commodities like oil. Natural disasters, earthquakes, disease, and floods, destroyed the cities of then, and we cannot ignore that this history might also repeat itself. When the resources of civilization were spread too thin by warfare and empire building, there was nothing to spare for rebuilding. The relationship of religion and politics is also evidenced throughout this history. Persecution and intolerance brought on by fear-spreading political leaders is a theme that repeats itself in the Hellenistic, the Roman, the Byzantine, and the Medieval world, just as it still does today.. The early Romans were programmed to fear Christianity, The later Roman Christians were taught to fear Islam, and in turn the Muslims to fear the Christians. They each spent incalculable resources and blood fighting many wars.

One must wonder from this if mankind will ever emerge from its barbaric beginnings. If one is to view these events with a positive vein, it is in the symbols of tolerance that emerge from each period: The Muslim mosques and Jewish synagogues that are now built near Christian churches within the same communities in places of Rhodes, Bodrum, and modern Selcuk, for example.