Today, we have a free day. We discover that there is an Ephesus museum only a few blocks from our hotel and we decide to visit it. But before that, we go back to the art gallery. Like the gallery in Cappadocia, the Turkish government supports their business by paying for the shipping, tariffs and taxes on qualified purchases. We know that there is typically a minimum purchase that meets these requirements, but when I ask what the minimum is, the salesman does not understand what I am asking. When we go to pay for our purchase, there is some back-and-forth between the cashier and the salesman and then the salesman tells us that the purchase is too little money for the government to reimburse them for shipping. He says that it is usually items that are 34 cm or larger (our item is 30 cm). We ask whether they would be able to ship them if we bought two that were the same size. He says that this would be acceptable. That sets us off on a search through the gallery that we both like. It takes a while, but we find another mosaic that we like. For the final step of purchase, the salesman asks if he can take a picture of us with our purchases. He says that this is encouragement and motivation for the artists whose creations are sold here. How could we resist?
The Ephesus Archeological Museum is just down the hill from our hotel. This beautiful museum opened in 1964 and was built to house the most important discoveries uncovered during the excavations at Ephesus that had not already been "stolen" by European museums. Here is what I mean. From 1867 when large-scale excavations began at Ephesus until 1905, artifacts discovered were moved to the British Museum in London and from 1905-1923, all additional artifacts discovered were moved to the Ephesos Museum in Vienna. It was only in 1923 when the Turkish government said "no more" and prohibited additional artifacts from leaving the country. In 1929, Selçuk became a storage depot for the more recent artifacts discovered and eventually, the pile of stuff became so big that they needed a larger place to store and display them. Here are some of the more interesting pieces that I saw:
You might think that the statue on the right of the second row doesn't look very Roman. You might even think it looks kind of Egyptian - and you would be right. Part of Ephesus' heyday was during the time when Augustus Caesar was the Roman emperor and Cleopatra and general Marc Anthony were an item. As such, the Egyptians were held in high regard and to show their respect, a temple to the Egyptian gods was erected in Ephesus.
It is getting toward lunchtime and during our search for a place to eat, we come across this clever piece of art:
We finally find a place on the top of the hill above our hotel. This place is an old estate that is part restaurant/part gallery/part hotel. I am particularly struck by the old door mounted on one of the walls:
Our waiter is a Kurdish guy from eastern Türkiye who speaks excellent English. He tells us that the owner of the estate now lives in Los Angeles where their other gallery is located. Unlike most of this trip, there is a dog, instead of a cat, sleeping under our table. There is also a very nice view of the Isa Bey Mosque:
Since we have been overfed at every meal, we decide to only order mese, but when they bring six of them plus bread, it is still too much! After lunch, Chris and Mark want to visit their gallery. Beth joins them while I go back to the hotel to work on this blog. While there, Beth is able to take a video of the dramatic color change that happens with a silk rug when you turn it around:
Pretty cool, don't you think?! They clearly have to take this effect into account when coming up with the design.
Back at the hotel, we sit down in the patio with a nice bottle of wine. Then we decide to go back to the same restaurant for dinner. We confuse our waiter by ordering three dishes to share between four people, but this is just the right amount of food!
Tomorrow, we are off to Ephesus. Stay tuned!
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