Ephesus / Selçuk

Always wondered about who the St. Paul wrote those weird letters to. Well, coming to Ephesus was a good way to find out. The ruins of the ancient city sprawl for over a kilometre. Mozaics still adorn some of the Roman houses and the public latrines where St. John and St. Paul would have peed could still be usable, given the excellent state of the sewers and pipes.

The base for this outing was the town of Selçuk, above which St. John is buried in a Byzantine basilica. Pity that the town is a tourist dive, very reminiscent of the average Greek island village. The place I stayed was under renovation, but that was no problem for them. The dude in charge was pretty intense though:

'I say I love Russia, I love communism - my father say fuck off. So I go sleep at the mosque. I not speak to my father any more.' He was very protective of his kitchen, but let me use it. However, he didn't let me do the dishes!

Having spent several hours walking through the ruins, I decided to hike 6 km up a mountain to see St. Mary's house. In the Gospel according to John, Jesus entrusted Mary to John as he was dying on the cross. It is believed that John took Mary with him to Ephesus. In the 19thC a stigmatist nun had visions of Mary's house. In 1982, two theologians found what they believed to be the foundations of that house. I don't know... I must admit that there's an incredibly calm atmosphere to the whole place... and the holy water from the spring is delicious.

On the way back I did something stupid. As I had 2 hours of daylight left, I decided to climb up to the Byzantine fortifications above Ephesus, following animal paths through forest and scrub. It was definitely worth the view: a panorama consisting of Ephesus, Selçuk, the Aegean sea, a setting sun, farms and mountains. Getting down was a problem - the whole plain between the highway to Selçuk and the mountain ridge had been flooded, and in any case the cliffs were too steep to climb down safely. So I had to walk along the entire length of the wall, scrambling through toppled boulders and thorn bushes, until I came to St. Paul's prison, by a field where a tractor road led. Total hike length: 20km +.