15 July, Last night in Kusadasi

OK all, this is where the big Marble Blur sets in. We have seen so many stellar sites over the past 3 days, it will be difficult to do each justice. Suffice it to say that the Fulbright-Hays operation has done a fantastic job in laying out a program that really teaches Anatolian history. Istanbul will be our Turkish history focus, with the Ottoman empire and then the founding of the Republic (1923-4). This trip has opened my eyes to vast chapters of my own ignorance--a humbling (read: embarrassing) phenomenon, but an important one for educators. Before I left the States, I had only a vague idea of what Anatolia meant, and certainly a vaguer (?) idea of who'd ever lived here and why any of it mattered. After all, when we teach about the Greeks and Romans, we can safely talk about the geographic entities of Greece and Rome...right? So not. Much of Anatolia was Greek and was Roman, or at least combinations of local peoples/traditions and the then-dominant (economic/political) cultures. Folks have lived here for 25,000 years at least. How did I not consider that? In the past 3 days we've seen some of the most outstanding cities/temples/monuments of the Greek and Roman empires...and they're all here. (duh) Here's a quick rundown:
Kaunos, used to be an important harbor until it silted up. Now a refuge for Mexican turtles, the caretta caretta (not making this up).

Carian tombs cut into rock face, on cliffs 50 meters up-holy cow.

Ephesus, one of the largest cities of the Roman Republic: 250,000 at its apex. It's only about 30% excavated, even though they've been working on it for 130+ years. It blew my mind. The terrace houses alone were such an education about life in antiquity (for the very rich). Our guide Ali has seen Sting perform at the theatre there--I won't tell you what kinds of comments my deep jealousy prompted. Not ladylike. Ephesus has been moved 5 times due to environmental shifts, namely silting of harbors and earthquakes. This is one active mass of land, that's for sure. Fundamentally, the fact that people have to react to changes in the earth is one of the surprising lessons I'm learning here. So many cities have been relocated due to environmental change, be it silting of harbors (very frequent in what we've encountered here), floods, fire, earthquake, and invasion by enemy groups. I cannot say enough about Ephesus. I understand why there were thousands of tourists there from cruise ships. It's one of the world's great sites of antiquity--how could people not flock to it?

The house of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus. I lit a candle for my mother-in-law and for the girls, Liv and Ruby. I also tied my wish to the wish board. No holy water though. I forgot an empty bottle.

The Seljuk Ephesus Museum was fantastic. We saw many friezes and statues that would have lined the main streets or decorated the temples of Ephesus. Such grandeur. And you would not believe the scale of things--I've started to take pictures with people in them (next to monuments, for example) just to suggest the sheer size of what we're seeing. It's incredible.

Hierapolis, in Pamukkale, and Aphrodisias--these are from yesterday, the pictures I downloaded and named today (took more than an hour--I'm starting to get my columns and theatres confused). Highlights of these were the calcium baths at Pamukkale--check it on the web. Full of Russians in skimpy bathing suits, these therapeutic baths have been used for centuries by people ostensibly seeking to cure rheumatism, arthritis, yada yada...but we think they just wanted to hang out in the sun and cool pools. The hippodrome at Aphrodisias was my favorite, although the museum there was really wonderful. That's what Chris would want to use to decorate our property. The statues were fantastic. They lined the stoa, the covered walkway of the agora, or marketplace.


Today was Priene, the first city actually planned out (5th c. BC...its predecessor was destroyed by an earthquake, so they rebuilt along a grid pattern, lots of organizational application. Smart) I almost didn't check out the home Alexander the Great had there, but figured my colleagues at school would kill me if I didn't photograph it for them. Apparently Alexander wanted to keep an eye on nearby Miletus which was a little too independent for his liking. He didn't stay in Priene long though, since he was so busy conquering the known world and all.

Then we went to Miletus, a famous Ionian city that St. Paul visited. I am embarrassed to say that, sitting here recalling the sites of the past several days, I cannot remember exactly what we saw in Miletus, a mere 6 hours ago. Holy cow--am I losing my mind? Sadly for Miletus, after it we went to Didyma and saw the famed Temple to Apollo, once inhabited by an oracle, or maybe string of oracles over time. The scale is hard to convey--columns of 20 meters? It had a temple within the temple, but regular people could not go there. It was never completed (expensive) but if someone wanted to fork over a few hundred million dollars, the full restoration could continue. I really liked it. And Ali explained a lot about construction techniques used to build structures of this size. That cleared up many questions for me, but as this is not my forte, it left some unanswered. I'm no physics genius, that's for sure.

And I've read Orhan Pamuk's book, Snow. Fantastic. If you're interested in Turkey, or in a wonderfully crafted psychological portrait of a man looking for happiness, but running from it just as quickly, read it.

Somehow I changed the setting on my camera and all my pictures from the past few days are HUGE. Hard to post. Will try to upload a few. Might end up sticking them on Facebook. I have videos too.

The food continues to be excellent, and I am working hard on my Turkish. Haven't swum in the Aegean yet (too choppy here at this hotel in this town) but plan to tomorrow. Laundry hung outside on a chair dries in 60 minutes, with this sun and wonderful breeze. Ah.