Today we docked in Kusadasi, Turkey, which is located in Asia
Minor, the bridge from Asia to Europe.
Kusadasi is referred to as the gateway to ancient Ephesus, which was first colonized in the 10th century B.C.
Our first stop was at the house of the Virgin Mary -Amazing!. The later years of her life were lived out at this location. A church was constructed over the remains of her home, and Pope the Sixth came to this location and blessed it as a catholic church in 1977.
Under the house is a natural spring that was tapped so you can can bottle up holy water, sprinkle it on yourself, or even drink it. The holy water has been running from a natural spring since the very beginning.
{Wall of prayers to the Virgin Mary}
{Our holy water}
Ephesus is home to the largest outdoor archaeological museum because 25% of the ancient city has been successfully excavated. The ruins that are seen today are from the city established by one of Alexander the Great’s generals. Ephesus was destroyed throughout the years due to earthquakes, but remade each time even more grand for every rebuild.
{A Turkish NumNums}
{A mosaic street}
One of the strangest things we saw was the public bathrooms for the men! It was a big square building with fifty holes seated right next to each other with no privacy whatsoever. The men would sit side by side to do their business and interestingly also conducted business, politics, and social talks while in there. Interestingly, there were no public bathrooms for women, so that will remain a mystery!
{One of the largest libraries}
Ephesus has strong biblical routes, as Saint Paul, lived here and evangelized to the civilians to stop worshiping the idols and to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. Our guide provided an amazing story regarding the silver makers of the town who organized a massive riot against Paul due to his urging to stop worshiping the idols. The silver makers livelihood was threatened by Paul. They gathered everyone in the massive theatre and began their revolt against Paul. Fearing for his life, Paul left the city but continued to spread the word of Jesus by writing letters to Ephesus, hence Paul’s letters to the Ephesians. Very neat!!
{Where the people started the riot against Paul}
According to the written sources, the basilica that housed St. John's grave (now at the Vatican) was rebuilt in 550AD as it played an important role in Christian pilgrimages of the middle age, it attained the status of a "Church of the cross".
At the end of the day, we made our way back to the city and into a gov’t subsidized rug manufacturer, which was established to provide Turkish females with a free opportunity to learn the art of double knot hand man rugs (a dying art) and to provide them with the ability to make a living. These women actually still make these rugs for dowry for their family. The owner put on a show, offered us drinks, a Turkish tradition when you enter into someone's home or workplace, and is considered rude not to take them up on their offering. I had cold apple tea and Richard had the country's Epfs beer. We were shown silk rugs, which take approximately three years for two women to make. We loved a silk runner at 16ft. long and 3 ft wide but it was priced at an amazing $22,000 due to it's size and the amount of time it takes to created. We ended up buying a smaller hand woven rug for our powder room. I am just thrilled we were able to purchase such a beautiful piece.
{Silk hand made rug, $30,000}
{The rug we bought}
{Our boat}
