Kusadasi, Turkey Home of Ephesus & Arrggeea Rguuggs

After our swim stop in Camliami we pulled anchor and sailed just around the point to Kusadasi. Honestly, I’m still not sure why they do it this way, but I’m suspecting it has to do with tour schedules etc. In this port we actually docked at a pier. I mention this because besides Piraeus, we anchored in the harbor and took tenders to shore in every other port. As soon as the ship was tied up it was time to go ashore for our first excursion. This was billed as a four-hour event including a guided archeological tour of the ruins at Ephesus followed by an education tour on Turkish rug weaving. Ephesus, I learned was the home of the Ephesians as in the Letters to …, in the New Testament. You may already know this, but I had no idea until the tour guide mentioned the connection. Anyway, there we stood, looking at a city that was a prospering seaport even thousands of years before Christ. The excavated area is immense. The amphitheater alone seated 24,000 and the population of Ephesus at its height was reportedly 250,000. The public buildings, temples, and commerce areas alone were really something, truly spectacular, but then there are the terrace houses.

On this entire trip, if I had only seen the terrace houses of Ephesus, I would have been awed beyond measure. The terrace houses are so named because they were build on the sides of hills by terracing the landscape. It is impossible to properly describe the emotion I felt as I walked through homes that were literally in use at least two thousand years ago. It gave me a entirely new appreciation for the level of civilization, accomplishment and sophistication this fragment of mankind had achieved by that time. For instance, would you believe central heat, hot water, running water, and indoor plumbing? I want to make it clear that these were the houses of obviously well off people. The square footage alone, of these homes, was impressive. The first home was approximately four thousand square feet of living space. The other was nearly as large. What makes the terrace houses of Ephesus so special is their extraordinary condition and level of preservation. The Turkish Government is doing a superb job of excavating, reassembling, and restoring these ancient domiciles. It would all be for not however, if it were not for the amazing scaffolding, roof canopies, and louvered wall systems that cover and surround the dig, protecting it from the elements. A German company has made this impressive protection, possible. They contributed and organized other mostly European sponsors, to pay for and provide this five million dollar weather shield. I say mostly European, because I did see there was a lone U.S. contributor, VA Tech. Other terrace houses, which were excavated prior to this shield, became completely eroded by the weather and were lost forever.

As I mentioned these houses were even centrally heated, and had hot water. The Ephesians accomplished this with a system of both clay and even metal pipes. The homes had marble and mosaic floors, and both marble and plaster walls. The walls were decorated with Frescos and faux marble finishes. I hope the pictures upload and somewhat portray what I have described.

As impressive, as this portion of the tour was it was only the first two hours of our excursion. Naturally, there was driving time and when we left Ephesus we ran a gauntlet of the small merchants in a market set up just outside the ruins. Lets, just say that the Turks take selling their wares very seriously. By comparison, we found the Greek merchants far less pushy. Once we were back on the bus we went to learn about rug making. I have to admit I never saw this one coming in spite of all the obvious signals, such as the tour guide referring several times to the dying art of Turkish rug weaving. When we entered the “Rug Museum” we were first led into a small room and shown how silk threads were removed from the cocoons. Following that, we were escorted in to a long narrow room. There were many rugs both hanging on the walls and rolled up standing on end against the walls. Near a low doorway there was a small loom was set up. A young woman in her late twenties to early thirties was demonstrating knotting and weaving techniques, etc.

She was amazingly fast. She had to slow way down just so we could see how she was doing it. Our new host answered questions from his audience and then the young woman left us. Now we were as shown seats along the wall and offered refreshments as our host began to explain the “knotting process and types of fibers used and how the quality each rug was decided.

Several more men appeared and rugs began to be unfurled on the floor before us. At this point for me at least the handwriting was on the wall. Under the pretext of explaining “double knotting”, knots per square inch, wool on wool, wool on cotton, cotton on cotton, and silk on silk, blends, etc., rug after arrggeeea rrgguug was displayed before us. Each time came the invitation to touch, feel, walk on, etc.. Oh yes, as I mentioned, just prior to our “instruction” they offered everyone a hospitality drink, which ranged from harmless apple tea to a 40 proof anisette like liqueur. Naturally, the rugs were magnificent, but it also became clear this education that was not going for the simple joy of learning. Long story short we now own a verry nizze 10’ x 7.5’ arrggeea rrgguug. It is to be delivered, to our door, in 6 to 8 weeks, and you are welcomed to drop in a see it. I believe we’ll be serving apple tea.

Just about everyone in our tour group became a proud owner of one variety of rug or another that afternoon. Based on this experience I suggested some changes to the cruise folks. First, I told them they should rename this tour to “The we’re going to show you some nice ruins right before we sell you a new arrggeea rrgguug”. Secondly, I suggested they throw in the tour as charging us for them really adds insult to injury!