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April 25 - Kusadasi and Ephesus
Please visit April 25 slideshow
Kusadasi breakfast was ample - traditional - and we all stoked up to prepare for our 8:00 outing into beautiful Ephesus ruins which are the most reconstructed that we have seen. As Sidar led us to the ruins of the city assembly amphitheater, we noticed many storks flying overhead - a good luck symbol according to Turkish legend. First settled by neolithic farmers, Ephesus is best known for its Hellinistic art and architecture and later Roman reconstructions which were visited by St Paul and St John. Paul's lectures in the reconstructed theater probably led to the end of Ephesus as the pagans were discouraged from multiple deity worship and Christians soon moved on to build closer to the Aegean. The city was once on a harbor, but silt filled it in so it is now about 3 miles from the sea.
After our visit to Ephesus, we went back to Kusadasi so that we could eat lunch, do some shopping and let Ann swim in the hotel's pool.
Our Final Dinner
We had our farewell dinner tonight at another restaurant overlooking the sea at sunset time. The mayor of Kusadasi toasted us before our meal. At the end, we presented Masut, our driver, with a gift of CDs of Turkish songs. We gave Sidar a good bottle of Raki - the national drink of Turkey.
The map of our route is below. To see it in Google Earth, follow this link.