All the News that Fits
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We left Istanbul the next day for the second leg of our trip, flying to Izmir and renting a car for the drive to Pamukkale in southwestern Turkey. Pamukkale is the site of an unearthly cliffside of chalky white travertines, the result of minerals deposited by the fall of water over the mountainside for thousands of years. Pools of water reflect back the blue sky in terraces on the cliff, and streams run over the white surface, leaving behind fresh deposits. For that reason, the only way to walk through the travertines is barefoot, an excursion of roughly a mile downhill. We deemed it fair payment for our time spent swimming in the crystal-clear warm springs pool at the top of the bluff, a pool that once had attracted Greek and Roman bathers and is littered with marble columns from their buildings.
Our stay in Pamukkale is also memorable for our time at the wonderful Hal-Tur Hotel, directly across from the travertines. The Hal-Tur's owner is a former rug merchant and his wares are still prominently displayed around the hotel courtyard. We may have been able to escape the blandishments of salesmen in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but we could not resist the charm of our host in Pamukkale. We bought a small kalim rug from him that he swears is of excellent quality and vintage heritage. We think it makes a nice addition to the bedroom.
Celcuk and Ephesus
The next day we drove on to Celcuk, the hub for our visits to the ruins of Ephesus, the resort town of Kusadasi and the tiny village of Sirince. Celcuk turned out to be the perfect location for our exploration of the area, convenient to everything, big enough to provide what we needed and yet much cheaper than the tourist-y Kusadasi, host to the big Aegean cruise ships. Two things were worth making the trip into Kusadasi for, however. One was dinner at Kazim Usta Restaurant on the waterfront. You pick your dinner from the fresh catch of the day—seafood appetizers, fish entrées, even salads and vegetables are displayed in a case for you to look over—and the food is perfectly cooked to your order. Incredible! The other was an after-dinner drink in the courtyard at the Hotel Club Kervansary, a 300-year-old inn that was once a stop on the caravan routes. The courtyard was candle-lit, filled with flowers and open to the sky. I expected Douglas Fairbanks to swoop in any minute. (Okay, everybody get your Google on and look him up.) **sigh**
We devoted an entire day to exploration of the Roman ruins at Ephesus. Here Cleopatra paraded up the paved Arcadian Way from the harbor to the heart of a great city. The harbor is now silted in, though you can still glimpse the far-off glint of the sea from the top seats of the city’s magnificent amphitheater. In that theater, which once held 40,000, Saint Paul addressed the Ephesians. (The silversmiths of the city, apparently misunderstanding his message that no true god would be made by hand, rioted.) The façade of the Library of Celsus, still standing at Ephesus, is considered one of the most spectacular ancient ruins in existence. With its beautiful marble columns and delicately sculpted statuary, it’s easy to see why.
But the best part of Ephesus for us was a hidden treasure few people take the time to see. The slope houses lie terraced into the hillside between the more visible wonders of the Library and the Temple of Domitian. They were once the homes of wealthy Romans in the days when Ephesus was a major capital of Asia Minor. Earthquakes destroyed them in the First Century A.D.; they were rebuilt in the Second Century, destroyed again, built over, again destroyed and so on until finally nature reclaimed the ruins. In 1967, excavation began at the site and continues to this day.
