Turkey>Ephesus
Roman ruins from 1st century BC port city that was built three times, last iteration of which had 250,000 residents. Ephesus is a very well preserved site of ruins. Requires a little imagination, but not too much to envision how its residents lived. AMAZING!
A sneak peak at the highlight, the Library.
I don't recall which mythic God this is. But ...
This is HERCULES! Lion head and all!
Beautiful intact mosaic "road" that ran in front of storefronts, adjacent to via vita! (vitae? vitum?)
The origin of NYC street-vendor coffee cup design. Design is called "meandering" after a river in the area named something like "meandre;" the river had many switchbacks that caused meandering.
Ancient toilets in the ancient gymnasium/bath house where men conducted business and boys trained their bodies and took classes. (That is what my guide said.)
The Library is the highlight of Ephesus.
The Library closer.
The forum where traders conducted commerce (plus slave market).
Believed to be one of the first out of home ads. Left foot says, "stay on left." To the right of the left foot is a crown that says, "bring money." The heart indicates, "love." So it's possibly an ad for a bordello further up on the left.
This theater holds 25K people. To this day, the acoustics are terrific so classical music concerts are still performed here. (My guide said he saw Elton John here, but that now they need more sedate crowds who simply listen to classical music.)
View of 25K capacity theater.