Day 11a - Izmir, Turkey (The Ephesus Museum and The Basilica of St. John)

"The best religion is the one that draws you closer to God" - Dalai Lama, quoted from Eric's short devotional presentation on the morning bus ride.

The Ephesus Museum is located in Selçuk, Izmir, Turkey. Izmir, for those Christian Scholars, was previously known as Smyrna. We set off for the Museum pretty early in the morning... and well, it was a little rainy.

Short Lesson on Izmir (Smyrna)
Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna, and he was martyred at the age of 86. As the story goes, he was going to be burned alive, but a rain cloud came over and put out the fire. Eventually, the executioners had to stab him to death.

At first I was like... what in the world?	Then I was like: "No way!! A stork?"

Lysimachus

Ephesus was once one of the greatest centers of learning in the entire known world. For instance, it's medical (and cosmetic) practices were one of the best of its day

Here are some toys that they had... Ephesus, like many of the archeological sites today needed to be preserved. Most, if not all the statues in the Ephesus Museum were taken from the actual city of Ephesus and replaced. These are from:

The pinkish parts are original. The grey was restored.

Here are some of the gameboards that they used
Ephesus, before Paul arrived, was a city that was full of Greek Gods Here's a few of their statues

Eros (Cupid) and Psyche
Aphrodite and Eros
	Eros (Cupid)
Diana (Artemis) of the Ephesians The many "egg-shaped" items on her chest are actually many breasts. Diana was the symbol of fertility, and her temple was once considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world
Another version of Diana. With the way the statues were built, many of the parts would fall off during earthquakes Here, the statue is missing hands...
Diana (or Artemis) was the main goddess of the Ephesians, and when Christianity arrived proclaiming a God who had no statue, the silversmiths and the other idol makers were infuriated. Eventually, Paul was run out of the city, because of the profits made by the idol-makers.
Here are some other shots from the Ephesus Museum:
These vials contain tears. The tears of the people were preserved and were buried with them.
These are small statuettes buried with the people
These are the original carvings (I'll indicate where they came from in the actual pictures of Ephesus in the next post)
If I'm not mistaken, this is Aries, the Ram Before reaching Ephesus proper, we headed to the Turkey carpet factory. Turkey makes some of the most lavish carpets in the world! [NOTE: I've got a great video on the process, but I'm unable to post it to this blog at the moment] From there, in spite of the rain, we headed to the Basilica of St. John

The Basilica of St. John was actually built by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century. It apparently stands over the place where John, the disciple was buried. That's the John who was one of the disciples of Jesus, who wrote the Gospel of John, the epistles (letters) of John, and the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ

The entrance

The basilica is actually on the Ayasoluk Hill near the center of Selçuk not too far from Ephesus

The ruins of the Basilica of St. John

The Tomb of  John, the author of the Gospel of John, the letters (epistles) and the book of Revelation

Well, it was raining, and there wasn't much else to see at this point.

Next Stop: Ephesus