Preaching to the Ephesians!!!!!!!

Here you go… my trip to Ephesus. I won’t write too much, cuz you can just wiki it- but the pictures will speak a thousand words…

Just to give you a brief idea- I absolutely love exploring biblical places- please dont ask me why I haven’t been to the “Holyland’ as yet. I will someday…

Ephesus was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world, with a population of over two hundred and fifty thousand in the first century BC. It is one of the seven churches of Asia cited in the book of Revelation, and the Gospel of John may have been written here. Only 15% of the city has been excavated- difficult to believe- it is pretty huge!

From AD 52–54, the apostle Paul lived in Ephesus, working with the congregation and apparently organizing missionary activity. He became embroiled in a dispute with artisans, whose livelihood depended on selling the statuettes of Artemis in the Temple of Artemis . He wrote between 53 and 57 AD the letter 1 Corinthians from Ephesus.

My experience with Ephesus!!

There are 2 parking lots at Ephesus and 2 entrances. One uphill and the other downhill! After Mother Mary’s house, we came across the uphill one first- and parked there. What luck! All we had to do on entering and procuring our tickets was walk downhill. I had read up that it was a difficult walk and people were complaining about it.. but if I didn’t find the walk difficult….trust me it’s not difficult at all!

We decided to take our time and rent audio guides.. Alas! they were over and we had to make do without them. But reading up on it, wiking while we walked, and boards placed everywhere were more than enough- we did not hire a human guide and I am glad!

The Sun shone up above, and a chilly wind swept around us- the result- I had to wear my heavy winter coat.. Only later did I realise that it was a blessing!

One of the first things that intrigued us- the baths…

Ancient columns strewed along the path- ‘walk walk’ was all they said to me!

How old does this look to you??

a part of the downhill journey! and me!!!!

As we kept walking.. look what caught my eye!!

Ouch.. it must have hurt real bad…

I had read a lot about the terrace houses. You pay an extra fee to go view it- however it closes early, and by the time we got there, we couldn’t go view it.. but it’s covered- the pics show it all..

Houses in Efes

Stoas or halls outside the terrace houses…

Entrance to the Terrace Houses..

 

We then walked past the Temple of Hadrian-

The Temples of Hadrian

Then came across this letter to the people, written in stone…. Can you imagine the effort and time it took.

 

Emperors Valentinian and Gratian wrote this in stone

We then walked to what was one of the most beautiful structures in Ephesus- the Celcus Library- with reading rooms facing east to facilitate good light from the sun!

 

The Library!

We were almost at the other end of Ephesus.. and I was looking forward to view the theatre- where Paul preached to the Ephesians.. Mighty huge….

How many thousands could be seated here?

A closer view..

I came to Ephesus for this!

We were almost done… and our final Ephesian structures  were tombs- not very exciting- please someone tell me why they were placed right near the main entrance/exit!

The tombs of old…

Ok ok– I’m done- but please one last picture of my personal favourite- just as we were walking out…… different view- different colors….

As I walked out.. the structure still stands amazingly strong!!

And here I’m done. We drove to Izmir and had to wait for 3 hours before we took our flight back to Istanbul.. Apparently all the flights were going full and we couldn’t be put on an earlier flight.. A 5 minute flight later- we landed in Istanbul and took the train and tram to our hotel! Tired- but super happy!! One more day to go and then we had to fly back to Dubai:(

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