Ephesus

From Istanbul we took a night bus (ahh the joys of traveling overnight) to Selçuk, the town nearest to Ephesus. I recognized the name of the city because Paul wrote a letter to its residents in the Bible, but had little idea of how impressive its ancient ruins were.

Ancient ruins require a good imagination, and for those of us who need lots of help, there are auidoguides and guidebooks. I decided to employ both means for my visit to Ephesus. Here I am in front of the Celsus Library in my full tourist uniform.
This is one of the main drags. At the very end you can just make out the Celsus Library.

This is the Roman Amphitheater, which could hold about 50,000 people. I overheard a tourist guide say that they multiplied the capacity of the amphitheater by 10 to arrive at an estimated population 500,000 people for the city. Aside from being really big, this is where, according to Acts 19, a great crowd gathered to protest the teachings of Paul.