Efes Ruins

Our last stop before Istanbul was Selcuk and the ruins of the city Efes. Efes was a major Ionian city and a source of much of the classical world’s great thoughts. It includes streets, houses, temples, baths, public toilets, pleasure buildings, markets and a theater. It changed nationhood several times but seems to have impacted the conquerers as much as they impacted the city

We toured Efes in some pretty strong winds with Gundoz a local guide. We had to duck behind ruins to avoid the dust clouds and avoid downwind of Gundoz to dodge his spittle. He explained the inspiration and background of the architectural styles and symbols.

A recurring image was a spoked circle surreptitiously carved by Christians. This symbol had layers of meaning that used the latin word for fish as an acronym to proclaim that Christ was God’s son and he died for human’s sins. We also saw a hastily carved menorah in the library steps. It looks like religion is a founding source of graffiti.

The simple white statue piece is a Roman’s foot on a sphere. Gundoz explained that this showed the Romans knew the world was round (and that they controlled it). I bet they thought is was older than 5000 years too.