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Kusadasi, Turkey. We arrived during the night and this was my first view of it off the starboard side. Ashore, it was quite a clean and modern town. It had the obligatory Starbucks. Turkish security was a joke. They barely glanced at anyone’s passport. I suppose we didn’t look like Kurds.
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Our group gathering at the beginning of the tour of Ephesos. The city was a port in antiquity but is now six miles from the sea due to silting of the Meander River. It is located between two huge hills, one is visible in this photo and the other,
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in this one. At its peak in the second century archaeologists estimate the population at half a million which would have made it one of the largest cities in the world. From the finds in this area the archaeologists speculate about some sort of “farmer’s market” from the landward side, as opposed to the big agora which was at the other end of the road and near to the harbor gate.
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A colonnade which is what remains of the basilica (government offices) directly opposite the aforementioned “State Agora.” One of our group was conveniently walking by to give it some scale.
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Somewhere out there they have found ruins of public baths behind the agora. In fact, we were astounded to learn that they have excavated only about 15% of the site. The size of the whole archaeologically sensitive area is enormous. Our guide, John, who was a professor himself when he was not making real money guiding tours, (his words!) noted that most of the digging is done in the summer, when the heat is worst, because the archaeologists must get back to their classrooms for the fall semester. I can’t imagine trying to clear this area with a trowel and a brush.