After exploring Ephesus and the Basilica of St John the previous day, on Sunday the 4th of March we went to the Isa Bey Mosque, the Temple of Artemis, one of the ancient Wonders of the World, the Ephesus Museum and had a walk around the town.
The mosque was a nice enough building, still apparently functioning as a place of worship. The Temple of Artemis, while at one time impressive enough to be counted a Wonder of the World by Herodotus, is now a fairly unimpressive ruin, with one and a half rebuilt columns, a few ruined walls and a large pool. The most interesting part of visiting the Temple was all the terrapins sunbathing on the side of the pools. We saw a few by the side of some pools in the ruined chambers. Then, as we got to the large pool at one end, there were dozens of large ones that all tumbled into the water when they saw us.
The Ephesus Museum had various interesting relics – statues of Artemis with either many breasts or testicles covering her torso, for instance. Later in the day, we walked to the other side of the town with the aim of maybe walking up a hill. We went over the railway, passed a mosque and through a residential area. When we got to the foot of the hill, a bunch of children came to us and started demanding we take their picture – we went back pretty quickly.
We were back at the railway station the following morning, to get a train to Izmir Airport. From there, we flew to Athens.
