Victory, wisdom and wealth, Civilization under the ground

Victory, wisdom and wealth, Civilization under the ground

I was 10 or a little bit older when I first visited Ephesus; I was sick and had a fever. I can only remember the long marble road and Library of Celcus. But I knew that; my archaeology passion would bring me this magnificent ancient city again. After almost 22 years later, I was in Ephesus again, I have waited more than I imagined.

Great Theater




Great Theater

 

When you first enter the city Great Theater will welcome you.  With 25.000 person capacity Great Theater is the largest in Anatolia. It was first constructed in the Hellenistic Period and took its present shape in Roman Period. It was proven that the theater was used as a gladiator arena.

Tetragonos Agora



Reminings of Agora

After Great Theater you’ll see Tetragonos Agora (commercial Agora) Tetragonos Agora will lead you to beautiful South Gate Agora, throughout the centuries official notices and legal amendments about commercial agora were hanged on walls of South Gate. Gate was built by Mazeus & Mithridates and was demolished with an earthquake in 13^th century.



South Gate



Library of Celcus

Rest a little bit under the shadow of South Gate, take pictures and admire the skilled masters Mazeus & Mithridates. When turn your back to Tetragonos Agora, on the right side, you’ll see Library of Celcus.

Front





Ceiling





 Library was built in the memory of Tiberius İulius Celsus Polemaeanu by his son Gaius Iulius Aquila. Grave of İulius Celsus Polemaeanu was beneath under floor of Library. At the entrance you’ll be welcomed by 4 ladies, wisdom, knowledge, fate, virtue.

Temple of Hadrian

Temple of Hadrian

Hadrian Himself

After Library of Celcus, you’ll pass by “love house”, on Curetes Street you’ll see “Temple of Hadrian”. According to an architectural tablet this monument is bringing honor to Hadrian. Reliefs on the door, picture the foundation legend of Ephesus.

Traianus Fountain

Traianus Fountain

Fountain was built in honor of Emperor Traianus and Ephesian Artemis. In the middle there is a statue which belongs Emperor Traianus. Under the feet of statue there is a sphere which represents earth.

Heracles Gate

Heracles

At the end of Curetes Street you’ll see two pillars. Both pillars were decorated with representations of Heracles. That’s why it’s called Heracles Gate.

Nike

Nike

Nike, goddess of victory is one of symbolic icons of Ephesus. In relief of Nike, she holds a wreath made from laurel leaves. This wreath made from laurel leaves represents victory.

Processional Way

Processional Way

Every year in ancient era, so-called Artemisia or Ephesia festivals were organized in honor of Artemisia, protected goddess of Ephesus. As part of those festivals; sports and music contents were organized but cortege was centre of attention.

Curetes Street



Street



Curetes Street is one of main streets of Ephesus. Street is between The Hercules Gate and Celsus Library. There were fountains, monuments, statues and shops on the sides of the street.

Terrace Houses or Houses of Rich

Terrace houses 2 can be described as a big island called as insula (a kind of apartment building in ancient Rome that provided housing for all but the elite, source-Wikipedia).

Those rich houses had the highest comfort. Walls were covered with frescos and floors were covered with mosaics. Every house had baths and heating system.


Interior Walls




Lion



Indoor

interior walls

Indoor

Indoor

Granolithic Floor

Fish on the wall



Granolithic Floor



Indoor



Graffiti in Terrace House 2

Drawings and writings were scratched on frescos. Those are giving information about daily life. On the drawings, generally, gladiators and animals were pictured. Writings are generally about love and poetry.





Gladiators









Graffiti



     I should remind you, it’s going to be a long journey.  So bring water and snack food. If you feel tired you can relax under the trees of Ephesus. Exit of the city you’ll see cafes. If you feel hungry or thirsty you can try those cafes.

If you want to buy something for your beloved ones there are also souvenir shops around cafes. But I suggest you to try museum shop.



  

Celcus Library and South Gate





Ar View





Sou Mela

Hello to all!






Yard

 Before writing about Pergamon and Ephesus, I had decided to write about my Trabzon trip. Due to reasons beyond my control, I visited only Sümela Monastery and Atatürk’s Villa. I was planning to go to Uzungöl Plateau and stay one night there but you know what they say “If You Want to Make God Laugh, Tell Him Your Plans.”

According an oft-told story among Black Sea Greeks, two monks from Greece had the same dream, in their dream they saw Saint Luke’s Panagia in Sümela, thereupon those two monks came to Trabzon by sea, totally unaware of each other’s existence.

They came upon each other and told about the dream. This is the brief story of how the Monastery was founded.



This holy place is located in Maçka (antique Matsuka city). Word of Sümela with the dots above the U letter can look strange but it is pronounced Sou Mela and mela means black in Greek. In accordance with sources which I read before the visit, name of the monastery can derive from the Black Mountains which the monastery stands

But according to other researches it could be associated with the black colour of the icon of Panagia Soumela.

In any case, I’m sure all those researches would agree that Sümela is an unusual and spectacular place

Stars of monastery



This amazingly well preserved place has Greek Orthodox frescos on the walls. The main subjects of the frescoes are biblical scenes.

Monastery was built against side of middle sized mountain. It is possible to reach there by car but you have walk and climb like 300 meters to reach Monastery.

Take your time while walking, enjoy the amazing view, take photos, take a deep breath and enjoy pine trees, fresh air.



Don't forget to wear something with hood. Even at the summer it is possible to be caught rain. Eat something before go to there, at Monastery there is small café, there is nothing to eat there. There is restaurant down the Monastery, It was looking like a nice restaurant but I haven’t tried it.








The Raising of Lazarus



View





Mother Mary





Temple & Philosopher

Goddess of wisdom; known as Minerva by Romans, Athena by Ancient Greeks.

Aristotle, philosopher; known as teacher of Alexander the Great and philosopher

One is from ancient spiritual world, other one is a scholar.

Can you separate those two, religion and science? They both born from needs of mankind, one regulates the nonmaterial world, other tries to explain how the material world works.

In my mind, science and religion are attached to each other. No wonder those are my words, my thoughts but under the sun there is a place where science and religion league together…

Temple



Ruins of Athena Temple



Assos, known as Behramkale, a small place where academy of Aristotle is and Temple of Athena reaches to the sky.

Assos was ruled by so many civilisations, Aeolians from Lesbos, Persians and Romans. Persians expelled from Assos of Alexander the Great; city also was ruled by Kings of Pergamon.

Unhappily during my visit to Assos, ancient city was closed, I don’t know the reason. I only saw Athena Temple.

Construction of temple was begun at the second half of 6 century BC; temple was dedicated to Athens, the guardian of the city.

Temple is very important for ancient architecture. Signboard, located at the entrance of Assos says “Athena Temple is the first and only Doric temple of archaic period of Anatolia. At the same time, temple is the only sample which consists Doric and Ion architectural characteristics together. For further information, please refer to http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/artifact?name=Assos,%20Temple%20of%20Athena&object=Building

I suppose, people of Assos didn’t know they built such a unique structure, they only intended to please their Goddess.  I hope they achieved to please Athena and found inner peace.

Temple was build to highest hill of the city; so that Athena could protect Assos.

I climbed to the hill; Guardian of the city welcomed me with warm winds and sunlight. Unfortunately many of temple is in ruins, but even the ruins are charmful.  Well, I’m always touched with ancient cities. Athena was lucky, hill is surrounded with an amazing view, Aegean Sea, wuthering heights…

After visiting Temple, I stopped by a small café of village which is run by a villager. They have delicious gözleme.  I recommend you to have gözleme with white cheese and ayran, after climbing a steep hill, eating and resting will be good.

(for gözleme; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6zleme)

  

View

Behramkale-Village

Road to Village and me



Villagers

Village Cafe

Ruins



Troy, Legend and First Beauty Contest

Legend

To the most beautiful one… The most important battle of mythological world began with this simple sentence. Eris the goddess of strife and riot was not invited to an important meeting which was arranged by Zeus the God of Gods and Goddesses.

So Strife and riot goddess sends an apple to the meeting to take her revenge

Athena, Hera and Aphrodite quarrel and cannot decide who is the most beautiful one. So Zeus sends the Goddessed to Paris son of King Priamos and asks him to choose “the most beautiful”. Paris chooses Aphrodite the goddess of beauty and love as the most beautiful one. But of course nothings is gratuitous. Paris wants Helene the most beautiful woman in the world and wife of Menelaus King of Sparta.

Aphrodite does not return his wish and make Helen fall in love with Paris. Paris elopes Helen to Troy with help of Aphrodite.

So the Greeks who believe they are insulted declare a war to Troy. So a war called “Trojan” begins between Achaeans (Greeks) and Troy. We can say Trojan is the first war between east and west.

With the help of God and Goddesses (Athena, Aphrodite and Ares) war continues more than 10 years. Odysseus who is loved by Athena Goddess of wisdom makes a wooden horse. According to plan Achaeans would act like they withdraw and leaves that wooden horse behind. Odysseus and other skilled generals hide inside that wooden horse and others sail to Tenedos and hide. Achaeans leave only one soldier with the horse and send him to gates of Troy. This one soldier tells to people of Troy he hates Greeks, he escapes from them and runs to Lands of Troy, this wooden horse made as holly altar for the sake of Athena”. People of Troy let he wooden horse enter to their city to beg for mercy and peace from Athena. That night people of Troy get drunk with the joy of peace and in a sudden army of Achaean show up, destroy the city. After this great mess Menelaus takes Helen and sails to Greece.

This is a very brief summary of Iliad and Odyssey of Homer.

The Wind brought wealth to Troy

Troy till the archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the city was presumed as mythological city. But is an ancient city which contains 9 cities or 9 layers.

Troy I (3000 – 2500 B.C.) : Initial settlement of the early bronze age

Troy II (2500 – 2200 B.C.) : First settlement, Center of contemporary civilization. Ended in a raging fire

Troy III ( 2200 – 2050 B.C. ) : Surrounded by walls, Buildings were larger and more developed than the previous period

Troy IV ( 2052 – 1900 B. C. ) : Blocks of the houses were attached to each other

Troy V ( 1900 – 1800 B. C. ) : More advanced techniques and workmanship in the construction of the walls and the houses

Troy VI ( 1800 – 1300 B.C. ) : Middle bronze age

Troy VI A ( 1300 – 1260 B.C. ) : Large storage jars that were set deeply into the ground and covered with a heavy stone slab to store solid and liquid supplies for an emergency

Troy VII B 1 ( 1260 – 1190 B. C. ) : Founded on Troy VI A * Similar construction techniques with Troy VI A

Troy VII B 2 (1190 – 110 B.C.) : New settlers

Troy VIII ( 700 – 350 B. C. ) : Repopulated by Greeks from Lesbos and Tenedos

Troy IX (350 – 400 A. D. ) : The city spread and covered the whole mound Hisarlik. Emporor Augustus rebuilt the city. The temple of Athena was the most important building

City Walls



Odeon & Bouleuterion




 



How Palace House looked like B.C. 1700




How Palace House looks like as of 2013




Holly Area