The first thing that greeted me on Turkish soil was a magnificent orange tabby cat that was strolling nonchalantly around the customs area of the port of Izmir. She was kind of blase about the tourists who were trying to get her attention, but she did stop to let me pet her and give me a good meow. Quite a difference from those cats that we saw in Hubei -- I think that she probably weighed as much as 5 of those Hubei kitties that Stephen and I saw.
Ephesus was much more impressive than Olympia. It's one of the three big Roman ruins -- you have Pompeii, there's one in Jordan whose name eludes me at the moment, and then there's Ephesus. Of course, this being the height of tourist season, the place was positively crawling with people, and it was also an extremely hot day (about 40 degrees), which was suboptimal for sightseeing. But it was impressive nonetheless. I especially liked the theatre/stadium with its rows and rows of seating. Will post my pictures when I finally get back to a reasonable internet connection.
(Note about my pictures: It's incredibly easy to make pictures lie. When you see my photos, you'll get the sense that Ephesus is somewhat deserted and you're free to roam as you like. Not so. You can barely squeeze through some of the narrower passages at times.)
Our guide for today was a retired journalist and somewhat of a philosopher. He shared a lot about what he thought of the Jewish/Christian/Islamic conflict (he didn't even try to be PC at all, which was shocking at times but also a refreshing change), and though he was Muslim, he knew a surprising bit about Christianity and the Bible. As he pointed out where St. Paul supposedly preached in Ephesus, he talked about the Christian martyrs and then he said, "We learn about the basics from our parents, from our mosques, churches and synagogues. However, we never really think about the fact that people have died in order to give us what we believe in." He then went on to talk about the lions that they used to feed the martyrs to.
Some of the Americans in the group weren't too pleased about this, "what a downer", they were saying, but I appreciated the reminder about how we got what we have today.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Ruined City: Ephesus
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2 comments:
Do you mean Pella, Jordan? You were there before, right? I have never been there, but saw some impressive pictures.
I would love to see Ephesus and listen to your tour guide myself. To me, the more I know about other people: what they are like and believe, their history, etc., the more I must respect them. I may not agree with them, but I have to respect how they come to be what they are. If I were (born) in their place, how different would my world be ... Would I still think the way I think?
No, not Petra -- that was built by the Edomites originally and then built on by the Romans. There's one city in Jordan that was built completely by the Romans, but I can't for my life remember the name.
Totally agree re: listening to other people. Our tour guide today was much worse -- a human tape recorder kind of describes her to a tee, all facts, any opinions toed the official line, that was about it. It was a good thing that Istanbul really didn't need having a tour guide.
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