Today, our ship landed in Izmir. Somewhat nearby Izmir are the ruins of Ephesus. Since there is pretty much no way of reaching Ephesus from Izmir on our own without a taxi, we opted to take the ship tour.
The first stop on the tour was the “House of the Virgin Mary.” The house is almost completely reconstructed because only the foundation remained when it was rediscovered. The evidence that Mary lived here is quite flimsy, making this a questionable tourist destination. But we didn’t come for the house, we came for Ephesus.
Ephesus is a large Roman ruin that is remarkably well preserved (especially when compared to the Greek ruins at Olympia). However, it is still a ruin. Walking along its marble path, one can wonder about what it would have been like to live in this ancient city. The ancient amphitheater is enormous, capable of seating tens of thousands of people.
Our final “tourist” stop was the government school of Turkish carpet manufacturing. Basically an hour long sales pitch, the school did offer some insight into the enormous amount of effort required to create a Turkish carpet by hand. As our guide stated, Turkish carpets are a dying industry, mostly because machine-made carpets are substantially cheaper. (Interesting side-note: no male students have ever successfully graduated from the school.)