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Ionian
Coast
EPHESUS
Most magnificent of all is ancient
Ephesus, site of another of the Seven
Wonders of the World, the Temple of
Artemis. Famed from earliest times as a
centre for the worship of Cybele, the
great Mother Goddess, it grew to be the
most important port of the Aegean – with
a population of some quarter of a
million people – as well as being a
place for Christian pilgrimage. It is
said that the Virgin Mary lived out her
life nearby, and that St John the
Evangelist came here from Patmos to look
after her. Among the highlights of this
extensive site are the façade of the
Celsus Library, two stories high and
decorated with columns and statues, the
theater seating 24,000 spectators and
two private houses built for rich
Ephesians, complete with mosaic floors
and vivid frescoes. |
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Library of Celsus, Ephesus |
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Private Houses, Ephesus |
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PRIENE - MILETUS -
DIDYMA
Further north lies a choice between the hillside city of Priene, the
theater of Miletus and the massive Temple of the Oracle at Didyma,
famed almost on a par with Delphi for its prophetic powers. The
Oracle was particularly fond of predicting the rise of future
rulers, and it was in thanks for this honour that Alexander the
Great ordered the temple to be rebuilt in the 4th century BC.
Imagine the awe with which those consulting the oracle must have
approached its shrine, surrounded by 108 20m-high columns. |
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MILAS
Halicarnassus was just one of a group of towns that made up ancient
Caria. Indeed Mausolus originally came from Mylasa, modern day Milas,
and it is to Milas that one must return to begin an exploration of
the ruins. Here, well signposted from the centre of town, is the
Gumuskesen or Slipper Tomb, an intact mausoleum of fragile beauty
said to be influenced by, though on a far smaller scale, the great
mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The town itself contains crumbling
Ottoman town-houses and traditional han courtyards, where merchants
would lodge on the night of the all-important market, stabling their
pack animals below. |
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Map - Byzantine Chapel
- Halicarnassus
Ionian Coast - Inner Ionia - Carian Coast
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