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The founding myth for Ephesus says the Delphi oracle told Andropolus to found a city where there were jumping fish and running pigs. After many travels, his boat had caught some fish and his party was cooking it ashore one night when one of the fish, not dead yet, leapt off the spit and into some bushes where it frightened a local pig who ran away. What better omen than that on which to found the major port of Asia Minor?
We visited our 3rd Wonder of the World in 4 days, the Temple of Artemis. Like all the others, not much remains, and it takes a lot of imagination to reconstruct the temple from the handful of restored columns. (Other 2 were sites of
Colossus of Rhodes and Mausoleum of Halicarnassus,
now Bodrum; of which even less remains today). Behind the temple are a
Byzantine Basilica of St. John, and a 7th c Seljuk castle, along with a later
mosque. Quite a range of history captured in one shot. |