Nancy & Shawn in front of the Ephesus Library in Turkey

Visiting the ruins of Ephesus when in Kusadasi, Turkey is simply… a must!

Anytime you visit Kusadasi, Turkey (or Izmir) during a Mediterranean Cruise, make sure to spend some time exploring the nearby ruins of Ephesus.

We were privileged to get to do that during our 1st ever Mediterranean Cruise and today we wanted to share a little bit about our experience and of course our Ephesus pictures…

…the highlights being the Ephesus Library and the Ephesus Theater.

Ephesus, now a part of Turkey, was originally an ancient Greek City founded around 3,000 years ago… at one point, it was even a major Roman city… with a population of around 250,000 it was the second largest Roman Empire City… only behind Rome itself.

Being around for that long, as you can imagine, Esphesus has quite the history. 🙂

It was attacked by mobs and conquered at one point, went through a major earthquake at another point and finally it’s importance was lost and demise came about when the harbor there (which was the main reason it was a big center of travel and commerce back in the day) was silted up by a nearby river…

…in fact, these days, the site of the ruins of Ephesus is nowhere near water at all.

But as with many things in life, one person’s loss is another’s gain, and as the city was ruined and buried hundreds of years ago, it was later excavated (at this point around 15% of it) and hence the reason why thousands and thousands of tourists flock to it each year.

To see these Ephesus ruins and hear the history is truly something else… and when they say it’s one of the world’s greatest excavation projects it truly is… we’ve seen several others but none compare!

Check out these few pics and you’ll see why:

Nancy & Shawn in front of the Ephesus Library in Turkey
Nancy & Shawn in front of the Ephesus Library
The "Gate of Augustus" in Ephesus, Turkey
The “Gate of Augustus” in Ephesus, Turkey
Shawn enjoying his time exploring the Ephesus Theater
Shawn enjoying his time exploring the Ephesus Theater

And you’ll even get to see a few little cute guys like this along they way!! 🙂

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Ephesus was truly a great place to spend the day
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There’s so much more there then we even had time to see so spend two days there if you can and take it all in.

Oh, and they told us the 3rd floor of the Library is being restored and will be done in about 10 years so it’s definitely a place we’ll be heading back to down the road. 🙂

As mentioned, some people visit Ephesus through Izmir but we did it through Kusadasi… what a nice, seaside, resort town on Turkey’s Aegean Coast!!

About 65,000 people live there year round (including many foreigners… we’re guessing for the views and weather) but it goes way up summertime as lots of staff come in to take care of all the tourists… apparently many Turkish residents from places like Istanbul, etc. vacation there… and it’s no wonder why!

And like any great resort towns there’s lots to do there… beautiful beaches, lots of great Kusadasi shopping, markets, bazaars, a great place to buy leather, silk, Turkish delights and high quality Turkish carpets.

Nancy & Shawn Getting a Turkish Carpets demo in Kusadasi
Getting a Turkish Carpets demo in Kusadasi

So there you have it… a little about our time in Kusadasi, Turkey and visiting the ancient ruins of Ephesus…

…so far, it’s the only taste we’ve had of Turkey (the country that is, not the food :-)) but we’ve loved what we’ve seen so far and it’s a Country we’ll definitely be spending more time in down the road… in fact, we’ll be in Istanbul in about 90 days from now for 4 nights after our “Black Sea” Cruise and will be looking forward to sharing that experience with you here.

Any highlights of your trips to Turkey, especially Ephesus, we’d love to hear about them below!

And if you want to see all of our pics from Turkey, check out our Ephesus & Mediterranean Cruise photo & video gallery.

We appreciate You!

Nancy & Shawn
Your Trusted Cruise Experts!

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