Pergamum: Throne of Satan

Just when you think you've seen it all, something new, something you could not even have imagined, pops up. Monday we drove up past sprawling Izmir (formerly Smyrna) to Bergama, and its ancient city of Pergamum. Among Pergamum's great variety of ancient sites is something called the Red Hall. It is an immense red brick structure, the size of a European cathedral, a large one, flanked by two sizeable, tall rotunda-like structures. Brick construction is very unusual for monuments and temples in this part of the ancient world; indeed it is the first we have seen. The size is, well, immense. Best of all, it was a 2nd century temple to the Egyptian gods, Harpocrates, Isis, and Serapis. The ancients were really into hedging their bets. When the Christians built a church in Pergamum, it is said, they simply built a basilica (now gone) inside the Red Hall.

Pergamum, if you know your Book of Revelation, and your seven cities/churches of the Apocalypse, was the city of the Throne of Satan. (Revelation 2:13: "I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.") The Christians and Satan are now long gone, but you can hear the muezzin very clearly, echoing about the valley, five times a day.

Red Hall; way too large to get in one frame

View of the Red Hall, taken from Pergamum hill (note tour bus for scale)

One of the two flanking structures: one is a
sort of exhibit area, the other is a mosque

Interior artsy-fartsy view

This is a huge podium at the center of the temple, on which a 10 meter statue of 
one of the gods stood; a priest would go down the hole there and make the god 
"speak" to the faithful; "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"

Among many remnants laying around: looks Egyptian to me

Restoration work goes on, the old-fashioned

way, too

Ephesus III: the Outtakes

It absolutely cracks me up that the Turkish name

for Ephesus is "Efes," which is also the name of
Turkey's very popular and very good beer;
"popular"--82% of the market, I have read, but
from what I have seen after nearly 2 months in
Turkey, I would have thought it was 98%

Somehow, at Efes, the ancient public works, drains, sewer

lines, water lines, were more visible than in other cities we

have visited; here's a whole pile of drain spare parts, 2000

years old; or so



Alas, an abiding image; at least the feral dogs here are well-

behaved, guardians, in fact, of the public spaces



Another Turkish kitler

Of course everyone who finds the latrine

stages this shot...

Every site has its mini-bazaar; Efes has two; Turkish

merchants, even the ones in the tourist trade, are a good-

natured lot

We were feeling a bit guilty about having skipped St. John's

Basilica and the Virgin Mary's house, so we did stop by the

tomb of St. Luke; it was so identified in the 6th century

because it had a cross on it...

Which afforded also this fine picture of one of the afore-

mentioned mini-bazaars (with a tour bus approaching) and

A view of the biggest and best Priapos yet; marble, no less

Alas, spending the night on the beach at Pamucak would

have been great

Ephesus II: Ephesus, the Rest

Ephesus' history is similar to many of the other coastal cities of Anatolia: neolithics, Hittites, Myceneans, Ionians, the Ionian League, Persian rule, alliance with Athens and the Delos League, alliance with Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, more Persians, rescue and prosperity after Alexander, a bunch of local kings, then Roman rule and prosperity. Under the Romans, it was capital of the Province of Asia Minor and its population may have reached 250,000. Of course, it was also a major city in Christian development, where the hostile theatre crowds turned Paul into a writer of letters, and the 3rd Ecumenical Council, in the fifth century, beat back the Nestorians and proclaimed Mary "Mother of God." (Succeeding Cybele, Diana, and Artemis (in her own town!), but we won't go into all that.) A big and famous place, with appropriate ruins. Ephesus languished as the harbor silted-up, and, by the time the Seljuks got there in the 11th century, it was just a small town. By the 14th century, it had been abandoned completely. We spent the morning at Ephesus, and then after lunch drove out to Pamucak, the beach fronting what was once Ephesus' harbor, with the island of Samos in the distance, spending the afternoon there, hoping to spend the night there too. At length, the Jandarma said "no camp" (we have learned to ask), and we went back to our little lay-by up in the hills above Selcuk.

Part of a 100m long mosaic lining the main (pedestrian--no

chariots) drag in Ephesus

Fountains of Traianus

Along the colonnaded main drag, outside the Odeon and

city hall

The Odeon

City Hall

Monument of Memmius, late Hellenistic



Gate of Hercules



Main drag looking toward library

Temple of Hadrian

Latrine, marble veneer still in place on some of the, um,
"positions"



Paint on the wall of a private residence

Gladiator along one of the streets



Ephesus' theatre--largest we have seen--could seat 25,000;

Vicki is there chanting "Artemis! Artemis!"



Distant, wider view of the colossal theatre

Ephesus I: Vicki at Celsus' Library

Vicki wanted to have the Celsus Library at Ephesus all to herself--a tall order considering it is the centerpiece of probably the largest and best known ancient Roman city in Asia--so we got up early Sunday morning and were likely the first people in the gate. She indeed had the Library to herself and her trusty photographer.

Dawn's rosy fingers (we've been listening to a lot of Homer

lately) peek over the mountain as we approach the city

center

And there it is just around the bend (is that a

great shot or what?)



Vicki presents the Library of Celsus Polemaeanus, Governor

of the Province of Asia Minor, 2nd century



Interestingly, the library was double-walled,

to preserve the 12,000 scrolls from humidity

and heat

Vicki on the pedestal of Athena in the

Library

The Library's porch



Arete (Goodness), one of the Four Virtues (I

would have preferred Episteme or Ennoia or

Sophia, but they didn't have heads); the

originals are in Vienna since it was the

Austrians who excavated this bit

Vicki reading at the Library

Above Ephesus

Saturday we left Pamukkale, where we had spent two nights in a parking area at the bottom of the terraces, and drove back to the vicinity of Selcuk and nearby Ephesus.

Detouring for a drive-by of the less-developed Laodikeia;

here, its pretty ruined theatre

And some other structures

We thought we'd drive up to the Meryemana,

the conjectured house of the Virgin Mary,
where she spent her last years, mainly to see
if overnight parking was possible; it wasn't,
so we drove back down the mountain a ways
and found a nice enough lay-by

Ephesus used to be a harbor city, until silting up, and

I wanted to get a view of the Aegean nearby; so I started

walking up the road, then turned off onto a forest service-

type road, then off onto a footpath leading to the top of

the ridge, wherefrom, I reasoned, I might be able to see

Ephesus and the sea; atop this ridge (Bulbul Dagi, Mt.

Coressos) run the ruins of a wall and towers, which I later

learned were Hellenistic

There's the sea, and you can also see the silted-up plain

that was once Ephesus' harbor (as I write, we're on the
beach there, at Pamucak)

So I hiked up to the wall and one of the towers



For a nice view of Selcuk

Its citadel, the Isa Bey Mosque, St. John's, and Garden

Camping

And Ephesus; its Odeon

Other structures

And theatre