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I love Turkey - there are a lot of donkeys living and working in Turkey. I always enjoyed stopping and chatting with them on my travels to get the local gossip straight from the, errrr, horse's mouth. Anyway, one day when our ship was in the port of Kusadasi (one of my favourite places in the world) I took Ferhad Junior to visit the ancient city of Ephesus.

Ephesus was built in the 10th century BC by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. It became part of the Roman Republic in 129 BC, and was the third largest city of Roman Asia Minor after Sardis and Alexandria Troas. Around 33,600 to 56,000 people lived there, together with 25,000 donkeys.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis, was built in 550 BC at Ephesus. Sadly, it was destroyed by barbarian Goths in 268 AD. Idiots.

Ferhad Junior's favourite part of Ephesus was the Public Toilets (seen here on the right). This was one of the first flush toilet systems in the world. Well, slaves pouring buckets of water through the sewers underneath at least. Originally the toilets had a roof on them, And opposite the toilets was ... a stage. I asked the tour guide what that was for ... "Oh, that's were the orchestra played on a Sunday." Ferhad Junior nearly fell in he was laughing so much

Men used to come and spend all day here on a Sunday. Slaves would bring food, the men wouldnt have to get up to, errrr, remove the last lot of food they'd consumed to make room for more, and the orchestra played all day. Those Romans sure were funny humans! But then, if it wasn't for them, you modern day humans might still be pooping in bushes - bwa ha ha ha!

Find Us in the Fotos

See if you can find Ferhad Junior and / or me in all the following photos (click on each one for a larger version).

*WARNING* It was such a hot day that Ferhad Junior took off all his clothes. Please do not look at the photos if you will be offended by a naked giraffe. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Five Fun Facts about Ephesus

  1. About 560 BC, Ephesus was conquered by the Lydians under King Croesus.
  2. The Ephesians allowed strangers to integrate, valued education highly, and supported women's rights through the cult of Artemis.
  3. Ephesus came under Egyptian rule between 263 and 197 BC.
  4. The theatre was capable of holding 25,000 spectators
  5. In its heyday Ephesus was a harbour city ... today it is 5kms inland due to the harbour filling with silt over the centuries.

Learn more about Ephesus

Ephesus on Wikipedia
History, information and pictures of Ephesus
Cool 3600 views around Ephesus
Go Turkey's Ephesus page
Map of Ephesus as it is today

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