Dust on My Feet: Overland to London - Ephesus to Anzac Cove

Celsus Library, Ephesus

Day 87 (London Day 3) Wed 20 August EPHESUS – ANZAC COVE

After a night-drive through from Pamukkale we arrived at the top car park at Ephesus at around 2 am and settled down to spend the rest of the night, ready for when the gates opened around 8 am.

COMMENTS: MISTAH! MISTAH! EPHESUS IS CLOSED!

This was a profound Turkish observation made by some local intellectual giant at around 2 am.

How we long for the 3 S’s Shower, shave, shit!

First thing this morning, we will drop you off at the top entrance to the ancient Roman city of Ephesus (Efes to the Turks) and will meet you at the lower entrance at 9.30. Ephesus in ancient times was one of the most important and wealthiest cities on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor. Its beginnings date from prior to 1100 BC when the Achaean Greeks settled in the area, developing a harbour at the mouth of the River Meander (Menderes). In the 8^th century BC a temple was built to the Goddess of the hunt, Artemis, and the town became an important religious centre. In 356 BC, a madman named Erostratos who wanted his name to go down in history, set fire to the temple. On this very night in far-off Macedonia, Alexander the Great was born and a tradition developed that Artemis had left the sanctuary to attend Alexander’s mother at his birth, hence there was no protection against the fire. Alexander, after defeating the Persians at the Battle of Granicus in 334 BC, offered to rebuild the Temple, but was told that ‘one god may not build a temple to another.’ The Temple was rebuilt with money usually levied in taxes by the Persians. This rebuilt Temple was the one that became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. All that now remains on site is one, solitary, reconstructed column, with a stork’s nest at the top.

Street of the Curetes, through Ephesus

Roman drainage pipes stacked at Ephesus

After Alexander’s death one of his commanders, Lysimachos, moved the city to its present site and constructed a new harbour. To encourage trade, he destroyed the harbours of the neighbouring cities, thus forcing merchants to use Ephesus. In 190 BC the Roman occupied Ephesus and in the 1^st and 2^nd centuries AD, the city reached a new peak of prosperity. Many of the inhabitants became Christians. St. Paul preached here in 53 AD and St. John was said to have brought the Virgin Mary here. Tradition has it that both the latter died here. St. John’s Basilica is in present-day Selçuk and Mary’s House (Meryemana) is in the hills at the back of Ephesus. A 19^th century German mystic, Catherine Emmerich, described the site from a vision – she never visited Ephesus – and subsequent investigation revealed the foundations of the house now venerated as that of the Virgin Mary. After the 3^rd century AD Ephesus declined. The Goths destroyed the temple of Artemis. Many inhabitants began to move to the area around Justinian’s Basilica of St. John in Selçuk. The harbour silted up and malaria was rife. Eventually the city was abandoned until it became the tourist attraction it is today.

A place for the Roman males to pontificate at Ephesus

From Ephesus we will press on to Izmir, ancient Smyrna, and now the third-largest city of Turkey to shop for food, then head on to Çanakkale, stopping off at Troy (Truva). Little now remains of the 9 cities of Troy which date from prior to 3000 BC. Troy would have remained an obscure city on the Dardanelles if it had not been for the poet Homer and his poem ‘The Iliad’ which recounts the 10-year war between the Greeks and the Trojans in 12^th century BC.

The Walls of ancient Troy

Traditionally the war is said to have been caused by the abduction of the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta, by Paris, son of King Priam of Troy. It had been predicted on his birth that Paris would bring about the destruction of Troy. Priam’s chief herdsman was given instructions to kill the infant Paris on Mt Ida, at the back of Troy, but instead he was abandoned the baby who was suckled by a she-bear. When the herdsman found the infant Paris still alive after a week, he decided to raise the child as his own and it was while attending the cattle that the Olympian Gods decided, as Paris appeared to be honest, to judge a beauty contest between the goddesses Aphrodite, Hera and Athena in what has become known as ‘The Judgement of Paris’. Each of the goddesses offered Paris incentives, but it was Aphrodite who offered Paris the ultimate prize – the most beautiful woman in the world (Helen) as his wife. Paris, a mere mortal, judged Aphrodite the most beautiful, much to the displeasure of the other two goddesses, and, with divine help, Helen was abducted by Paris and fled to Troy, his father’s city. Agamemnon, Menelaus’s brother and King of Mycenae, mobilised his Greek allies and set sail for Troy.

Group in the ruins of Troy - Wooden Horse at back!

The resulting war was said to have lasted ten years. Heroes such as Achilles, Ajax, Odysseus and Patroclus were on the Greek side, and Hector, Aeneas and Sarpedon on the Trojan side. Hector, son of Priam, was killed by Achilles who ignominiously dragged Hector’s corpse behind his chariot around the walls of Troy. Achilles, in turn, was killed by Paris whose arrow struck him in the heel, where his goddess-mother Thetis held him when she dunked him in the waters of immortality of the River Styx when he was a child. Sarpedon was killed by Patroclus who was killed by Hector, hence Achilles’ revenge. Troy finally fell to the guile of Odysseus who proposed the building of a great wooden horse – an offering to the Gods who throughout much of the war had taken sides, but were now neutral. The Greek ships sailed off to hide behind the nearby island of Tenedos (modern Bozcaada) and the Trojans, believing they had won, dragged, against the advice of the soothsayer Laocoön (who, with his sons, was killed by sea serpents sent by Poseidon), the wooden horse into Troy. Odysseus and a hand-picked group of Greeks were hiding in the horse, dropped out at night, opened the gates of the city to the Greeks who had returned under the cover of night and Troy was sacked and Priam and his surviving family were killed. As punishment by the gods, Odysseus had to suffer a further 10 years of adventures, related in Homer’s Odyssey before arriving home in Ithaca. Aeneas, the Trojan, also survived and with a band of followers also sailed the Mediterranean through a series of adventures (Virgil’s Aeneid) before settling in Italy and becoming, or so the Romans liked to believe, the ancestor of the Roman people.

Wild flowers around the ruins of Troy II

We will have dinner at Troy, before proceeding to Çanakkale to catch the ferry across the Dardanelles to Eceabat on the Gallipoli Peninsula. We will spend the night in an unfinished Australian War Memorial near Anzac Cove.

Day 88 Thu 21 August ANZAC – SOFIA (London Day 4)

Departure time: 6.45am

Remains of a landing boat still remain on Gaba Tepe in 1981

Early morning departure for the Anzac beaches. It was probably a morning such as this, on 25 April 1915, when in the grey light of dawn the first wave of Australian and New Zealand troops waded ashore at Anzac Cove and neighbouring beaches in the debacle that became known the Gallipoli Campaign. The plan to capture Gallipoli and thus gain control of the Dardanelles, the narrowest body of water between Asia and Europe, was Winston Churchill’s, and although the plan was viable, it was grossly mismanaged by the War Office in London. The Royal Navy was originally supposed to destroy the main Turkish defences in the area which it did with only limited success, and on the morning of the invasion was to carry out the preliminary bombardment. For some reason the barrage was inadequate and stopped too soon enabling the Turks to reoccupy the defensive positions. No allowance was made for the coastal currents and the invading troops ended up landing in a hail of Turkish fire on the wrong beaches. Losses were heavy, but the beaches and lower slopes were captured. After the first few days the war stagnated into bitter trench warfare, and although the upper slopes as far as Chunuk Bair were captured, it was finally decided to abandon the expedition after an exceptionally harsh winter and the troops were finally pulled out in early January 1916.

The Atatürk inscription in Anzac Cove

The area has been left much the same as it was after the battles. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintain the cemeteries in the area. The main Australian Memorial is on Lone Pine Ridge and the New Zealand memorial on the heights of Chunuk Bair. The Turkish commander at Gallipoli was Mustafa Kemal, later known to the World as Kemal Atatürk.

Sculpture of Turkish soldier with wounded Australian, near Lone Pine

From Gallipoli (Gelibolu in Turkish) we press on through Thrace to the city of Edirne, formerly Adrianople, with its great Selimye Mosque, built by Sinan, the famous Ottoman architect, in the 16^th century. The border with the Socialist Republic of Bulgaria is not far from Edirne and we will drive on to Sofia, the country’s capital, which we will reach after dark. We will be staying at Camping Vrana.