okay so since the last time I was able to post we have gone to Aphrodisias, Laodicea, Hieropolis, Ephesus, Priene, Miletus, and Didyma. Honestly all of the sites of ancient ruins all begin to look the same after a while. Here is what you will see when you come to an ancient ruin in Turkey: a central marble street, columns (some erected and some on the ground), a theater, and probably the base of a temple.
Aphrodisias is the city that was built for the goddess Aphrodite. What I liked about this site was that the man who discovered it was a photographer so there was an exhibit of his pictures. His name is Ara Guler if you want to look them up.
Laodicea was really interesting for me because it was still under archaeological excavation and rebuilding (most of the erected columns and buildings you see at these sites are a result of the rebuilding of archaeologists) so we could actually see the Turskish archaeologists working at the site. Also at this site there were people filming for an upcoming Turkish music award show (that was cool) I'm pretty sure the people they were filming were Turkish pop stars but I have no idea what their names would be.
Hierapolis was really beautiful. It is where run off from the mountain flows down the side of the mountain. It makes these little pools and the calcium turns the side of the mountain white. We were able to walk through these pools and the water in the pools of our hotel comes from this water.
These were the three sites that we saw on Tuesday.
On Wednesday we went all around Ephesus. First we went to a carpet making school. We were really surprised at the amount of food that we got for lunch since it was free. Then we went inside and they told us the price of the carpets. Watching the women (only women make the carpets) weave was really entertaining. They move so quickly and precisely. They took us to a room where they rolled out one amazing carpet after another. They were of every size and of every color. Some of them even changed color depending on how you look at it. The cheapest carpet was $250 and the most expensive one (which is kept in a special room, we were not allowed to see it, and took 5 years to make) was $150,000. Needless to say I did not purchase a carpet for the house seeing as Spirit has a nasty habit of clawing at them. In Ephesus we saw the house that the Virgin Mary supposedly moved to after Jesus went to heaven. We also went to the ruins of the St. John basilica where he is supposedly buried (he and Mary came to Ephesus together) Then we went to the ancient city of Ephesus (the city that Paul visited). This is the largest ancient city thus far. The temple to Artemis here is one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Here our guide set up a special visit to the cave of Paul. This site is still under excavation and tourists are typically not allowed to see it. Also if I haven't mentioned it everything in Turkey is up hill. This cave is a hike up a steep hill. It is called the cave of Paul not because Paul actually lived here but because there are frescoes of Paul inside the cave. (since the site is not open to the public we are not allowed to publish any pictures that we took). What was really cool about the ancient Ephesus is that there are Christian symbols carved into the marble.
On Thursday we visited Priene is an ancient city on a hill. What was interesting here was the theater because the Romans added these marble seats for the nobles that would have come to see the plays. We hadn't seen anything like this in any of the cities that we had been to.
Then we went to Miletus, which is the birth place of philosophy. Here we found a doggy family. There were four puppies (Twix, Snickers, Reese, and Hershey) Snickers was my favorite. I found out that the Turkish government takes care of the stray animals (I think I had mentioned that they had tags in their ears), they are feed and looked after. There are stray animals everywhere in Turkey.
We also went to the Apollo temple in Didyma. One of the guys on our trip (Ben) is an architecture major and he was really excited about this site, so I guess its a big deal. (It looked like every other temple to me, except it was quite a bit larger). We had lunch here and one of the waiters at the restaurant asked to take a picture with me. So that was fun and awkward.
This was kind of out of order first we went to Miletus, then Didyma, and Priene was last.
Friday we had a free day in Kusadasi so we spent most of the day on the beach
Today we had a four hour bus ride to Marmaris and then a free afternoon. I just took a long nap and then worked on some stuff for class (thrilling I know)
Tomorrow is another free day and we are planning on having class in the morning, then going to the beach, and finishing class work.
I have been having some technical difficulties with pictures so they are coming. I'm sorry for the delay, I know that's what you all want to see
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