Stork Nests and Baklava

An unoccupied but not abandoned stork nest atop an aqueduct segment

Tying up a few loose ends about the Selçuk and Ephesus portion of this Turkey trot.

First, stork nests. Once I was told about them, I started seeing them everywhere,

My Ephesus tour guide mentioned all the stork nests around town.

Storks are big birds and big birds need big nests. So if you look up on any towers and relatively thick high points, you just might see a big giant bird's nest on top. Whether that be a pole for a traffic sign. Or a minaret. Or even an aqueduct segment.

The fourth pillar in that photo, counting from the left and moving right, has a stork nest on top.

There's even supposed to be one atop the pillar at the Temple of Artemis sight although I can't see it. Might be the angle.

The storks recently migrated back to Africa for their winter homes. Storks not only pair-bind for life, each will return to its exact same nest that it built before. So, basically, for each stork couple, their summer home is in Selçuk and their winter home is somewhere in Africa. And their homes will be here waiting for their springtime return.

Second, baklava.

Up until this trip, I would say that I liked baklava. It's good, but I've had enough soggy and/or sickeningly sweet baklava to say it's not a favorite. Baklava also is usually made with walnuts and walnuts, to me, are not the best dessert nut. Turkish baklava can be made either with walnuts or pistachio, so I was intrigued to try pistachio baklava, thinking that anything made with walnuts would be even better pistachio. So, like I said, I liked but didn't love baklava. Then, I found Demiroğlu Baklavaları in Selçuk and my dessert world was rocked.

Not only is this the best baklava I have ever tasted, it is a candidate for the best dessert period I have ever tasted. It is sweet, but not cloying. Soaked in simple syrup but still flaky. And, weirdest of all, the walnut is even better than the pistachio. Again, I cannot state with absolute certainty that this is the best dessert I've ever eaten, but it is without any doubt the best baklava.

Some men who work at my hotel agreed that Demiroğlu Baklavaları is the best baklava in town. They also were amazed I found it, since it is not a usual stop on the tourist trail. Me? I'm jut thankful.

Two other loose ends. A front shot of the plexiglas giraffe I spied the other day.

And a staircase painted to look like Van Gogh's "Starry, Starry Night," which, I know, officially just has one "starry" in the title but Don McLean has us forever using the word double.

Why the Van Gogh connection with Selçuk? Does there need to be a reason to paint a staircase to look like a Van Gogh?

The House of the Virgin Mary

The Virgin Mary's house on a hillside above Ephesus

Catholics and Muslims agree on the veneration of Mary. In fact, there is one small sect of Islam that believes that a pilgrimage to Mary's house outside of Ephesus is an acceptable substitute for women to a hajj (religious pilgrimage) to Mecca.

I'm Catholic so Mary's house was on my must-see list.

The House of the Virgin Mary is located on Bülbül Mountain, about six miles from Selçuk, but up a steep mountainside. It is on land maintained by the Forestry Service of Turkey. It is a national park.

There is a very legitimate claim for this being the House of the Virgin Mary or, at least, a structure reconstructed on the actual foundation of her house in Ephesus. The Apostle John lived in Ephesus after the crucifixion and resurrection. It is stated in scripture, John 19:26-27, that Jesus entrusted John to care for his mother. So it is believed that John brought Mary with him when he moved to Ephesus. It makes sense that Mary would be "evacuated" from Jerusalem -- notwithstanding the fact that some Christian scholars believe Mary lived out her days in Jerusalem and that her assumption took place in Jerusalem -- as the early Christians were being martyred in Jerusalem by the authorities. So fleeing to the safety of Ephesus would have made sense.

Pope John Paul II declared this site in Ephesus to be an official pilgrimage site for Catholics. There is no other site in Ephesus believed to have been the home of the Virgin Mary after the crucifixion.

However, most visitors to this site are not Catholics or even Christians. It is Moslems. 

There was a small crowd, but not anything like the tourist masses in Ephesus. And no photography was allowed inside the modest house. So exterior shots are all that I have.

The place does have that feeling. If I had to explain what I meant by "that feeling," you would not understand. And that's OK. I won't judge you and I ask you to return the favor to me.

There is an admission charge to enter the grounds, as the land is owned and maintained by the Turkish government. It's the same principle as the admission charge you pay to enter a national park in the United States. The house itself is maintained by the Catholic Church. There is no charge to enter the house, but a donation is requested.

You get a candle with your donation, no matter how modest the donation. Mine is the one in the center.

There also are faucets of spring water that are available to the visitors and pilgrims. The water is not drinkable for those with a sensitive American tummy, but is perfectly fine for a cool wash down on a hot day.

There also is a prayer wall, which seems to be used exclusively by the Moslem visitors.

You leave notes with your prayer-petition on the wall. It sounds to me like the Jewish tradition of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, but I could be over-simplifying things. 

And on the way down Bülbül Mountain, we passed a statue of the Virgin Mary.

Not part of the official "House of the Virgin Mary" tour package, of course, but a sign that a Moslem country can share the veneration of the mother of Jesus with us Catholics.

Rainy Day in the Ruins of Ephesus

The Library of Celsus in the ruins of Ephesus.

It's a rainy day in Selçuk. And that means there is nothing more fun to do than to walk on the steep slick stones of the Ephesus ruins a few miles out of town.

Don't worry. The ruins get more ruinous the deeper we go into Ephesus.

Ephesus once was one of the largest cities in the world. By some measures, it was the fourth or fifth largest city on earth in that time period when the Mediterranean/Aegean world (i.e., the globe) was transitioning from the Greek era to the era of the Roman Republic.

And the place was thick enough with tourists that it seemed like it has not yet lost that ranking.

Cruise shippers. The main cruise ship port is nearby Kuşadası. It is not, and this surprised even me, the Port of Izmir, which used to go by the Anglicized name of Smyrna. When the harbor in Ephesus became non-functional a couple thousand years ago, when it silted up, Smyrna/Izmir became the new commercial port.

So the Ephesus port was gone, but the malaria stayed behind.

Here is a typical Ephesus tourist of the non-cruise subspecies, standing in a church doorway. The cross above the door is a "tell." Ephesus was an early Christian center, hence Paul's epistle to the Ephesians. 

Below is a local theater.

As you can see, the tourist pictured above is looking for his seat. His ticket says he should be sitting in C-19.

A row of columns. See what I did there?

A selection of different types of marble, from different parts of this part of the world, available to choose from, like some Home Depot from antiquity.

And here is the god of over-priced upscale scarfs.

Hermes.

And this is the goddess of over-priced "woke" sneakers:

Nike. The infamous Nike swoosh was taken from this representation. You can see it in Ms. Nike's flowing robes.

These are the Gates of Hercules.

 

Only the strong may pass through, I rated, for what it's worth.

A gaggle of tourists.

I'm not sure if "gaggle" is the right collective noun for a group of tourists. But it's the one I like to use. My dictionary says "gaggle" is an informal term for noisy, chaotic, unorganized group. Groups of tourists are usually, technically organized, although they do wander around obliviously.

This surviving (ish) structure has interesting decorative features.

Let's take a bathroom break.

The men's toilets of Ephesus. Community crappers on the Roman model. I, for one, think the stall wall was a welcome invention.

We now arrive at the "Terrace Houses" section of Ephesus.

Think of this as the luxury high-rise condo section of town.

Large rooms, the hallmark of luxury living even a couple of millennia ago.

The first "home" was a large mansion, with square footage around 15,000 sq. ft., which is enormous even by today's McMansion standards. But it still was a condo, as people lived on the higher floors.

This is covered because the "Terrace Houses" still are an active archaeological site.

Ephesus as whole is still an active archaeological site.

Floor mosaics. So you know you are no longer among the hoi polloi. You are hobnobbing with the Ephesian elite.

Floor mosaics in the penthouse suite,

And then it is time to go back into the elements. Below you can see the facade of the Library of Celsus.

You also can see the construction cranes that are being used in the active archaeology of this site.

Let's check out the Library, shall we?

The rains got a little harder while I was under the cover of the "Terrace Houses," so I chose not to remove my cap, with its glasses-protecting brim, while posing at the Library.

The Library is the place to be.

Let's have a look inside:

And the books have all been checked out. The scrolls are a couple of thousand years past due. Can you imagine the size of the fine?

Across the way is not the main stadium.

It looks like it. But it's not. At this point in the tour, I went inside for the "Ephesus Experience" show. It is a very well-done immersive 360-degree sound and video display about the history of Ephesus from the Greek to the Roman to very, very early Christian era. The production values were impressive and admission was included at no extra charge to the regular park admission. (The "Terrace Houses," on the other hand, required a small add-on fee to enter.)

And we end Ephesus with sarcophagi. Or is is sarcophaguses? Despite the rain, despite the horde of slow-moving boomer tourists (of which I am most definitely not, as even deep into my dotage I am a very fast walker), the Ephesus ruins were worth the trek. This is why I came to Selçuk and it was most definitely worth it. Almost as much as the baklava (more on that in another post).

Edited to add the following fun fact related to me by my Ephesus guide: Who was the first U.S. citizen to visit Ephesus? He is a literary figure and he wrote about in his most celebrated book, well, his most celebrated book in his lifetime. Other works of his became much more celebrated after his passing. The first American to visit Ephesus? Mark Twain. And the story of his visit is recounted in his book "Innocents Abroad."