Behind the Scenes at Ephesus

A trip to Ephesus is always interesting, especially when Mark’s youngest brother manages all of the workers who work for the archeologists which provides us complete access to anything we want to see. The archeologists tell Ibo what they need, and he gets it done.
The primary archeological team is from Austria who has funded research in Turkey for over 100 years except during the world wars. There is now also a team from Italy helping them.  We had access to the archeologists as well as the federal head of Turkey’s archeology program for the Efes (Turkish spelling) who was visiting this day and who is Ibo's boss.  All were more than excited to tell us what they were finding and the stories of Efes and its people.

photo shot from the crane

Efes was initially built in the years before Christ and became the largest and most important city in the western world with over 250,000 citizens. To compare, today’s city of Selcuk, located outside of Efes has approximately 27,000 population, which has grown from 8000 since mark left here in the 1980’s.

 The port town was full of merchants who traded across the Mediterranean into Africa and across the silk route to China.  The wealthy residents’ homes reflect this with marble from various worldwide locations. Since marble is prevalent in Turkey (you see it in even the poorest homes today), it was prestigious to show you had marble from other countries.

After Christ’s death, St Paul and other apostles as well as Jesus’ mother Mary came to Efes. The apostles to spread Christianity amongst the residents who believed in multiple gods (Artemis Temple was located across a hillside from Efes) and Mary to a nearby hillside to live her final days. (you can visit her home which is a short drive from Efes).

see the water pipe on right side of wall

The city had everything you expect in a city today – shopping centers, main streets paved in marble with columns that held lanterns at night, public baths and toilets, brothel, marble cutters and tradesmen, large and small amphitheaters, but no churches/mosques initially as there was no organized religion.  There was even a water/sewage system complete with pipes to the homes (of the wealthy) to service their toilets, sinks and bathtubs.  These homes also had saunas and water ran under main rooms to cool them in the summer.  Like today, there were often theatre rooms too, though I saw no large screen TVs.

Looking down on main room -which had open roof - and surrounding hallways to other rooms. All with mosaic floors

rooms of 1 house with mosaic floors and frescoed walls. Rooms with no windows surround the open roofed central room which provides the ventilation and light.

fresco from the theatre room

In the 3^rd century, there was a major earthquake which destroyed much of Efes with collapsing walls and fires.  On one marble floor, we found the imprint of melted coins. It is guessed that the resident grabbed his coins during the earthquake while he ran out of his home. The coins that dropped to the floor were melted in the fires.

round gray marks are melted coins

neptune in floor mosaic

After the collapse of Efes, the Byzantines (Christians) moved into the area and salvaged from the destroyed buildings to build their own buildings – mills, churches and homes.  You can see pieces of columns or carved marble used as building materials in these walls.  Alas, another major earthquake struck the area in this time which caused the death of the city. The harbor had begun filling in with silt from the surrounding hillsides which rendered the port useless.  There was no longer a reason for Efes to exist, so it lay in ruin with dirt filling in the spaces over the centuries…preserving what was there.  Mark played here as a kid, but there are now fences around most of the city boundaries, jendarmes guarding it day and night, and large fees to see the site.  But there is a lot of restoration and excavation work going on, as I could compare with 12 years ago when I last visited.

glass mosaic ceiling

Yes, they had naked women, and men, on their walls

Ibo and I get ready for the lift

The 7 hillside homes of the wealthy were still being excavated back then, and today they are available for viewing under the protection of a building.  The largest project currently in progress is the restoration of the large amphitheater. The side walls have collapsed through the years and the rear stairway entrance/exists had been covered with the hillside. These access ways are now excavated and the side walls are being worked on.

This is where I was given a special tour via the 20 story(?) crane.  I got into the basket with Ibo and we were lifted above Efes for a birds eye view – truly an amazing experience.  Mark’s fear of heights kept him in the amphitheatre waving furiously at me and hoping I didn’t fall out.

looking across to what is holding me up over the amphitheater

We climbed one of the hillsides to view a cave that was recently rediscovered.  It is from Byzantine times and you can see fresco paintings from the Old Testament as well as the new.  The archeologists told us that they have found up to 5 layers of paintings and are trying to learn from each layer without removing it.  The cave was somewhat known, but the interior was painted white.  While looking around the cave, one of the archeologists realized there was color behind the whitewash.  And that was the discovery.  They think the white wash happened in the 1800’s by locals (Muslims) who didn’t want to see Christian images.  They also know that Greeks from nearby Sirince (about 9 kilometers away) would make annual pilgrimages to this cave the Friday after Easter each year. But they don’t know why. A professor was in the cave recording the Greek writing etched on the walls so that it could be translated. 

St Paul and Mary painted in the cave

We had lunch with the crew near the hillside homes, and later, tea with the folks at the amphitheatre. I found out that one full time job with these crews is that of tea maker! This also includes cleaning up after tea, but keeps them busy the full day. 

mark and his other brother Adnan who's working on the amphitheater

A visit is not complete without visiting the necropolis since I love cemeteries. Efes had their own sarcophagus style which included garland around the box.  We noticed angels on one which would indicate a Byzantine era.

I think that to be a typical archeologist in turkey, one must be a woman with beautiful skin and eyes, great patience, and a slight build.  The women we met definitely fit this description!  The men were a tad geeky. They live from the spring to fall in Selcuk where they can work at Efes on their projects. When winter comes, they return to their base which can be Istanbul or even back to Austria where they conduct research on what they found over the summer. I met one woman who I remember showed us around 12 years ago - so they stay with their project a long time, perhaps their career.