Day 11 – June 23 – Izmer to Kusadaki (via Ephesus)
We gladly had a later start today. After one of Turkey’s most sumptuous breakfasts, we assembled ourselves at our bus outside our lovely Hotel in downtown Izmer (Biblical Smyrna), only then to set off on foot for a brisk walk through the middle of the inner city of Smyrna to St Polycarp’s Catholic Church, about 1km from our Motel. This was a very special experience. Built in 1625 with the express permission of Suleiman the Magnificent, the longest reigning Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, it stands as a memorial to the life and death of Polycarp, who served as the Bishop of Smyrna for almost 60 years before dying a martyrs death at the stake in about 155AD.
Polycarp was known personally to the Apostle John, and was enriched by having known several of the first hand witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ, such as St John himself. When Polycarp was challenged to renounce his faith or die, his famous final words have rung loudly throughout church history “For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” He was tied to the stake and set alight. The interior of the church is breathtakingly beautiful, decorated with frescoes depicting the life of Polycarp and the faith he embraced all his life.
We drove then for over an hour to the ancient ruins of Ephesus, where we were joined it seems by every bus load of tourists in Turkey who had all descended on the ruins of Ephesus at the same time. It was literally crawling with people. Actually, it wasn’t a bad thing because it gave life to the ancient city which actually brought it alive. We spent hours here, being taken right through and gaining a very good picture of how large and extremely well laid out and well planned the city was. It was originally built as a sea port, but over the centuries with silting and soil movements, the coast was now several kilometers away further to the east. Over the centuries, and as a consequence of the changing coastline, the site of Ephesus had also changed several times. The site we inspected today was not the original, but was probably the one that was known to St Paul.
The main street was wide and long in a slightly descending manner, with evidence being uncovered to show lovely side streets, and particularly the ‘agora’, the shops running alongside the main thoroughfares, with housing built on the higher parts running behind the shops (which resemble the ‘souks’ of ancient towns in the middle east. There was even a ‘red light district’, a public toilet (with holes cut in the stone for ‘sitting’ side by side (no vanity dividers), with a sewer system that ran underneath the main thoroughfare.
We went to the theatre, which was common to all ancient cities, which would have seated about 25,000 people. It had a stage as the lowest point with very high rows of circular seating. The theatre had been designed for music (with brilliant acoustics) and also rooms beneath for gladiators and the wild animals that they fought.
There was quite a crowd in the theatre (which is an open air theatre) but all conversation dropped to silence when our group gathered in a close bunch on centre stage and sang in beautiful harmony “I love you Lord, and I lift my voice to worship you, O my soul rejoice. Take Joy my King from what you hear, let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear”. The silent crowd then broke into loud applause when we finished. It was a good moment!
We were sad to leave Ephesus, but time had elapsed quickly. We went into the country a short way to a rural setting for a lovely Turkish buffet lunch, before making our way to a genuine Turkish Rug making ‘factory’. It was actually a Government funded tech college which specialized in teaching the age-old art of making Turkish rugs (all by hand). We were given a demonstration, and then taken to a large showroom with hundreds of the most beautiful Turkish rugs, and shown the finished products. E were also encouraged to spend our money, but the prices of these rugs were way above the pay rates for the likes of us (one rug was US$35,000). The cheapest rug was about $3,000! They tried hard though!
We then faced the final drive further south to the beautiful seaside town of Kusidasi to our hotel for our final night on Turkish soil for the ‘Footsteps of St Paul’. Tomorrow we board a tiny ferry just after 6am to sail to the Greek island of Patmos, where the Apostle john was exiled by Emperor Domitian for the latter years of his life, but where he wrote the ‘Apocalypse’, what is known as the book of Revelation in the New Testament.
From our balcony window, we have a dream view over one of the prettiest harbours we have seen. As the sun was setting over the Aegean Sea, we went for our final evening meal in Turkey.
From our balcony with a view, we send our love.
Until tomorrow….
KRA
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