John's (the apostle's) tomb and more piles of old rocks (Ephesus)

I'm mid train ride to Pamukkale (the first half of which I spend reading a gossip mag that someone lent me - sad to say but the rumours that Dannii and Kris are getting back together are unfounded) where we will stay in a crappy hotel, but it has a pool.

Selcuk was a nice town but we only had time for a wander including a nice mosque with a garden courtyard, dinner and a drink after the long bus ride and all the exploring was for the next day.  St John's Basilica, or what's left of it, is in the town itself.  When Jesus was crucified, he committed his mother Mary into John's care and apparently they ran away to Ephesus.  John's tomb is there and some nice ruins including a baptismal and the ever present columns with a great view out across the valley.  Mary's house, the location of which was revealed by some Nun in Belgium (well, one of those European countries anyway.   Bulgaria maybe?), is a 7 km walk so we skipped that.  The museum is small and full of statues.  I might have been more impressed if I hadn't just been to Greece.  It does however have a couple of statues of Artemis covered in either breasts, eggs or fruit.  They symbolise fertility and that depiction of her is unique to this area.  Artemis is a key deity of this region and the Temple of Artemis in the town is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  All that is left is one column (and that's been rebuilt).  According to Lisa (our resident classicist) some guy wanted  to be famous, so he burnt the temple down to gain infamy.

We had lunch at a pancake house and watched them being made - a couple of the group had a go at making them as well.  I was just doing my best to avoid looking at all the flies.  It was one of those sit on the floor on cushions kind of table which is quite comfortable but hopeless for eating.  The pancake is slightly out of town and is right next to the site of the seven sleepers - seven guys running from people persecuting Christians slept there for three hundred years (lazy bastards).

Next was the highlight of Selcuk, Ephesus.  The ruins are quite large and are from Roman times.  The usual suspects are there: baths, agoras, temples, fountains, theatres.  It was quite a hot day and I was glad that we had waited till late afternoon to visit.  The highlights for me were:
- the latrines.  Yes, you can giggle.  I laughed and gave some fake enthusiasm when Ozan told us our next site.  I was very sternly informed that they were a vital part of the Roman life and pooing together was an important ritual - this sent me into gales of laughter (and earned me more stern looks).
- the road (Ceretes St I think) which is nothing special but looks very cool - as does the road to the harbour (unfortunately the ocean is now 3 km away so it is a road to nowhere at the moment)
- the frescos and tiles in the terrace houses.  You have to pay extra to see these, but it was well worth it.  Houses with delicate frescos in place of wallpaper and tiles mosaics in place of carpets.  This is also the site of the world's largest jigsaw puzzle and I was itching to have a go but I think you have to be an archaeologist to participate.  One of the other kiwis suggested scanning all the pieces and getting a computer to do it might be quicker (but less fun)
- the library - the facade is about all you can see and it has been reconstructed, but it looked like an ideal location to kick back and read a book (well, a scroll back then)
- the theatre was the biggest I have seen yet, but it has largely been reconstructed with concrete and much of it is inaccessible due to further work.

Dinner was in a small,very tourist but very pretty, village near Selcuk.  We stopped to taste some fruit wine first - I thought that the apple wine was very nice and sampled a full glass.  Dinner was unremarkable except for its very nice location and the moon rise over the hill.  We did learn from Charlie that a moon rise soon after sunset is always going to be a full moon (or near to it).

The train is quite comfortable with plenty of leg room and reclining seats (if I could just figure out how to make my seat go back).  The scenery is very agricultural - olive trees is all I can identify but there are paddocks full of other trees and crops.