Time is going back way to fast here. I have had complaints from some of the readers (mainly family, but let's be honest, I know that you're the ones who are mainly reading this) that I don't post often enough and that I don't post enough pictures. Well, let's just say I'm living up the experience! But, to satisfy the mob, this post is all pictures and they are mainly from my favorite place in Turkey: Ephesus. I will put captions.
This is St. John's Basilica on the outside of the main town of Ephesus. It is Christian tradition that this is the burial place of John, LDS tradition believes otherwise, but there was a special peace about this area. Most scholars beleive that this is where the Gospel of John and perhaps one of his epistles was crafted. We also know that Mary was in John's care after the Savior's death, and it is believed that she died somewhere around here.
This is a baptismal font from the Byzantine period (when the Church was built) you can see that it's not deep enough to imerse, showing that sprinkling had become the mode of baptism by the period.
This is the overlook at St. John's basilica, it was a very beautiful, but windy day. Behind me is a mosque. While we were there there was an announcement from the mosque (a prayer really) that one of the members of the town had died that night. Our tour guide informed us that in small communities this is very common.
Behind me are the pillars of the courtyard of St. John's Basilica
As you walk through the main entrance of the Hellenistic and Roman Ephesus (what the city was during the New Testament period) you walk down a path and are met by the Goddess Nika, known as the goddess of victory. Ten points to whoever guesses the International shoe company that used her wings the create their logo and her name for their company name.
Those are what you think they are. If you ever wanted to sit on pure granite to use the restroom look no further! What's best is that if it was late at night, the aristocracy of the town would send their servants to heat of the seat before they got there!
This was one of the most amazing sights of the trip. Walking through the gate of Ephesus and seeing the Celsus library. This library held around 12,000 scrolls and has been amazingly preserved. (Here's a fun tidbit, that building (or the ruins of a building) to your right, that's believed to be a Brothel)
This is me and Kimmie in front of the library, she's one of my favorite people.
Ah, the marble road. It was closed for renovations, but I was able to snap this pic. This road linked the library to the Great Theater, which you'll soon see was the highlight of Ephesus for me.
The stage of the Great Theater! In Acts (19 I believe) when Paul is dragged into to town by the silversmiths (you see they made their living by creating statues of Artemis, so when people converted to Christianity they weren't too thrilled!) The backdrop or stage that you can see build up, was build by the Romans who didn't like people to be distracted by the beautiful view of the harbor.
This is the view from about halfway up, pretty cool!
Here's the view from the bottom, I thought that this would be the perfect place for a Hercules sing along!
Here's a view from outside the theater, just to give a little perspective.
The temple of Priene, well, the pillars of the temple in Priene
Overlooking Miletus in the background
Another one of my friends, Sarah and I with the temple ruins in the background.
This was one of my favorite days of the Turkey trip. I will try and put up pictures from the other days as kind of a Turkey overview, but we will see what homework constraints allow me to do!
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