Selçuk After Dark

Selçuk's Cengiz Topel Caddesi pedestrian street ... after dark

I've arrived in Selçuk. But my reason for being in Selçuk is not Selçuk. It's Ephesus. More specifically, it is the Greek ruins of Ephesus. But it's nighttime in Selçuk and not the right time for exploring Greek ruins.

This is the entryway into my hotel in Selçuk, the Akanthus Hotel Ephesus which, like me, is in Selçuk, not Ephesus. But it's Ephesus-adjacent, which is why I am staying here.

This is the Karakol Yani Cami:

It is, of course, a mosque. Note the minaret. It is not to be confused with "Caracol," which is spelled the same if you swap the c's on the one for the k's of the other, which is a ancient Mayan archaeological site on the border of Guatemala and Belize. The Caracol were the sworn, evil archenemy of the wonderful people of Tikal. But that's a different Caracol. I presume.

Soon it was night time in Selçuk.

This is the street where I currently am living for the next 72 hours. But I hoofed it about 500m (which we know is actually about a third of a mile) to the street of restaurants.

As I was descending into the core of the city, I noticed something trez interesting on my left.

It is the ancient Roman aqueduct. The ruins of Ephesus are a mix of Greek and Roman, but the aqueduct ... anything involving complex engineering for that matter ... are pure Roman.

 

Time to cross the main street of Selçuk.

This is an interesting photo:

I did not see any blue of any sort when I snapped the picture -- especially not aquamarine or turquoise or whatever you want to call that shade of blue on the right -- but then the photo had that blue. Trick of the light I presume, but I am presuming once again.

On the left is the statute of the Greek goddess Artemis. Her temple was in Ephesus. Very little remains today, which is a whole lot more than what remains of the six other Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that are not the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was closed before I got there this evening, so the Temple of Artemis -- my first of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World -- will have to wait until daybreak. Again note the weird blue color that is visible in the photo but not to the naked Selçuk eye.

Dinner tonight was at the ZADE ZADE Selçuk kebapçısı on Cengiz Topel Cd.

It had a 5.0 rating from Google with well over 100 reviews, so it must be good.

And it was. I had the Turkish meatballs, served with starches rice, French fries, and flatbread. along with a yogurt sauce and vegetably hot sauce. It also came with a giant salad that had an excellent vinaigrette dressing (olive oil and balsamic ... basic ... but always massively delicious) but entire farm of tomatoes which were wasted on anti-tomato me.

You know the meat is fresh when you can what they're going to cook for you in front the counter.

It was easy to say no to those lamb shanks on the rear part of the bottom shelf. Easy for me. Not for you lamb-a-holics.