Ephesus

We finished up our Turkey adventure together in Selcuk, which is the modern town right next door to Ephesus.  Continuously inhabited for the past 9000 years, Ephesus offers up strata of artifacts whose throughline is the guardianship of the goddess Artemis.  You may recall that one of the O.G. Wonders of the World was the Artemision--the temple of Artemis at Ephesus.  That massive structure was undone by earthquakes and fires in the 3rd century C.E. but one pillar remains still.  B, who wrote an elementary school book about the ancient Wonders, was thrilled to cross one off his list. 

For my part, I was thrilled just to hang out at the library.

And also at this splendid church, marking the site of St. John's bones.  Built the same time as the Ayasofya, but it hasn't quite resisted time as steadfastly.

We have been to 3 different areas of Turkey, each one wildly different from the others. And there is so much more of Turkey to explore.  The only negative, really, is that it has been, as Jay would say, hot as crotch, and I keep repeating to myself the soothing mantra, in a few weeks I'll be in the mountains.