The Hellenic Classics Cruise, 12-19 June 2015

A series of travel articles covering our trip with friends on the Thomson Majesty cruise ship as she sails on the Hellenic Classics cruise around the mainlands and islands of Greece and Turkey. There will be some spectacular and exciting excursions to some of the region's most beautiful and historic sites and some looks aside at lesser-known aspects of life in the Aegean. We might even find time for a drink or two...

Click each picture for the associated article. Each page contains a link back to this index.

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The House of the Virgin Mary

Monday 15 June 2015. During the night the Thomson Majesty has crossed the Aegean Sea dodging krakens, Roman galleys rowing at ramming speed, Jason and several Argonauts on a drunken spree, and the wrath of Poseidon.

We wake to find ourselves in Kusadasi on the Turkish coast and having had breakfast we head off the ship just in time to see this tall ship heading into port to dock on the opposite side of the jetty to us.

This morning we have a half-day excursion and settle ourselves into the front and second row seats of a coach behind the driver. Our tour guide is a young woman, Olcae - "Call me O.J." - who claims to be beautiful because all the most beautiful girls come from Izmir, which is where she lives. She's great fun and we have a great time teasing her and being teased back.

Our first stop is at the House of the Virgin Mary. This is believed to be the place where she lived following the Crucifixion. She was brought to Ephesus by St John the Apostle who wrote his book of the New Testament in the area. We have been here before and the evidence for the claim is presented here as a copy of my entry about our 2009 visit. Apologies for the repetition to those long-standing readers with good memories!

The first church to the Virgin Mary was also built in this region, at a time when church dedications were only made to those who had lived locally.

In 1812 a German nun, Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, who was an invalid and who had never travelled away from her home, had a vision of Mary's journey with John and of her home which she described in detail, her description being written down word for word by the writer Brentano. During the visions Catherine developed the marks of the stigmata - the 5 wounds of Christ.

Years later a French clergyman read the account and travelled to Ephesus in search of the house and found this chapel, an exact match for the description. He wrote to Rome but there was not much of a response. In 1891 however more clergy and Catholic officials visited the site. From the following year it became a place of pilgrimage and was restored in 1897. The chapel is believed to have been built in the 6th or 7th century but on foundations of the 1st century, which are still visible and marked with a red line.

The site has been visited by Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass here.

Climbing down to the sacred wells which were also described in the visions of Sister Emmerich. Actually they are sacred taps these days... Progress you know...

O.J. explains a little about the house and springs.

The three springs for health, love and wealth. I had misremembered this as health, wealth and happiness and just drank from the last one. Darn, what am I going to do with all that money when it arrives...?

Miss Jeannie is rubbing a bit of happiness on her face... So sorry Jeannie - it's really wealth...

Meanwhile David is stocking up on a bit of health...

We make it back to the coach park and our driver is standing smiling at the front of his bus so we will know which to get on.
"Who is this gorgeous girl, getting on our bus?" asked David.
"My God, she's beautiful!" I gasped, "She must be from Izmir!"

We set off down the hills towards Ephesus, stopping halfway to admire the statue of the Virgin Mary, donated by an American society.

This spot also provides a viewpoint to the modern city of Selçuk. There's chunk of the old city of Ephesus close to the centre of the photo.

And twisting a little to the left we see the Odeion or Small Theatre close to the entrance to Ephesus, which will be the subject of our next entry.

[Drama!] There's some sort of disaster occurring behind the coach. The driver and O.J. rush round to see what has happened. O.J. comes back with a plea - "Has anyone got any tissues? Someone has trodden in something we don't want on the coach..."

Hellenic Classics Index

In the Steps of St John the Apostle

Saturday, 21 August 2010. The Thomson Celebration is in Kusadasi, Turkey. The main tour of the day will be going to the ancient city of Ephesus, but having been there twice already (links to relevant blog entries at the end) we are today going to see the remains of the basilica and the tomb of St John the Apostle who came to live here and perhaps wrote his gospel here.

Moored on the opposite side of the wharf was a huge cruise ship of the Celebrity-X line. A Turkish dance troupe was doing their stuff on the dockside, but I'm not sure whether they were for the other ship or for us or perhaps weren't all that bothered and would do their stuff for anyone who showed an interest...

And before I get loads of emails asking about that really weird hat the chap in red is wearing, if you look again a bit more closely you'll see that it is a woman standing behind him! Her sleeve is the same colour as the ship and even I looked twice when I saw it! Looks a bit like a fish with a bird's legs standing on his head...

So we lump ourselves onto a coach and sit looking bemused at the staggering amount of people who seem unable to understand the need to find a bus marked with their own ship's name or the correct number before our guide decides he's got enough of us to go and we set off on our semi-biblical morning.

The first stop is at the golden statue of the Virgin Mary on the hillside leading to her house, which again we have visited before and the links are below, should you be interested. The statue was the gift of an American Society and that's as much as I had an interest in knowing before the marvellous views over the steep drop on the other side of the road took my attention. No doubt the guide told the rest of the bus load the date it was built, the material, the weight, how many mules it took to bring it up the hill etc...

But I had found something else to look at and it was a sight missed by the vast majority of those whose attention was making the guide think "Hey, these dates are really grabbing them! I must look up some more for later on in the tour..."

On the hillside opposite is the Odeion or Small Theatre close to the entrance to Ephesus. It was built as a council chamber aound 150 BC and was originally roofed and seats 1400 people. The city of Ephesus continues to the left and then round away from our viewpoint around the edge of the hill against which the Odeion is built. Hey up! They are all heading back towards the bus! There's only three of us have bothered to look this way.

The Basilica of St John was built over the remains of a first century AD temple around 530 AD by Emperor Justinian, who you may remember from an entry of a few days ago, was also building Hagia Sophia and the water cistern at Istanbul at the time.

This is a partially reconstructed wall to give some idea of how the basilica may have looked. I'd recommend a visit to the Sacred Destinations web site for anyone interested in reading further. They also have a photograph of a model of how the basilica once looked.

There were several rebuilds of the city of Ephesus. The first city was on top of the hill on which the basilica stands, in the heart of what now is a ruined fortress. The famous ruined city we visit today is the third city and the modern one, close to this hill, is now called Selçuk.

The Tomb of St John the Apostle. The central dome of the basilica was placed over the tomb. A small grating can be seen to the left of the photo. Behind this again is a rectangular grated hole with steps leading down, presumably into the chamber of the tomb. St John is the only one of the saints whose body has never been claimed by any church. The legend is that on entering his tomb whilst alive, an intense light prevented the other apostles from following him. When the light dissipated, so had all sign of him. Just a dust was left, floating in the tomb. Manna... The tomb was opened in the reign of Constantine the Roman Emperor. No body or relics were found.

The size of the basilica was such that if still standing it would today be the seventh largest basilica in the world. It fell into ruin with the decline of Ephesus and was converted to a mosque in 1330 only to be completely destroyed in 1402 by the Mongol horde of Timur or Tamerlane who had conquered almost as much of the world as Alexander and was likewise termed "the Great". He had been through Delhi and Moscow and was on his way back from Persia when he passed this way and the story goes that the Ephesians were so nervous they sent all their children to process out of their open gates, singing. Tamerlane is reported as saying "What is this noise?" and then commanded his nomadic horse warriors to ride down and kill the children under the hooves of their charging mounts. There is no way to play down the horror of that act.

Some ancient wall paintings depicting saints are on display in situ - in a small room, almost a cave. However they can only be seen from inside and you are not allowed in. To facilitate viewing a large mirror has been placed on the rear wall but in reality, all you see is your reflection - silhouetted against the bright doorway whilst all the surrounding detail is pitch dark by comparison. I took a photo but only saw the painting on the left once we were home and I had fiddled for quite a while with Photoshop! The painting on the right can vaguely be seen, but the head is obliterated by the glare of the reflected doorway.

Recent excavations have revealed this baptismal pool.

From the basilica site you can look down to an earlier site. The Temple of Artemis was one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Destroyed by earthquakes and looted for building materials there are just a few scattered stones and one reconstructed pillar. A link to a previous visit is below.

Previous related entries from this blog:

Turkish Delights
The Awe-Inspiring Ephesus
The House of the Virgin Mary
The Temple of Artemis

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Turkish Delights

Tuesday 27 April 2010. We docked in Kusadasi, Turkey and joined the second of our two excursions of the week from the Ocean Village Palaces and Pyramids cruise. This was a tour we had done before as a full day last year, but we were doing a half-day version today, visiting the Virgin Mary's house and the city of Ephesus.

The Virgin Mary's house is a 6th or 7th century AD reconstruction on top of 1st century AD foundations which are marked on the side of the building with a red line. All the evidence for this simple building being the last residence of this most venerated Lady is given in my blog entry of our previous visit, but however sceptical you are, it is fairly compelling if only for the reason that there was a church to the Virgin Mary here since a very early time, when dedications could only be made to saints who had lived in proximity to the church.

It was a fairly dull day to begin with. In fact on our arrival at Ephesus it started to rain just as we had entered the city with a full hour's walk ahead of us. It only rained for five minutes though and the wetness soon evaporated.

Again, there is an entry in the blog of a previous visit which you can read in conjunction with this one. It was an ancient city even when the Romans came and virtually rebuilt it. It housed the Roman world's third largest library and is so well documented that we know the names of its streets. This is Curetes Street and it leads downhill towards the Library of Celcus and the great theatre of Ephesus.

It was lined with shops and temples. This is the Gate of Hercules. On the left hand pillar he is pictured holding the head of the Nemean lion. No ordinary lion, it's fur could stop any sword and its claws could cut through armour. Hercules kills it as told in the legend of the First Labour of Hercules. Stunning it with a blow from his club, he strangled it with his bare hands then skinned it, using one of its own claws - his knife unable to pierce the pelt which he later wore as his armour. In fact there actually once did exist a sub-species of lion that lived in south eastern Europe!

This mosaic floor shows how well preserved some of the remains are. Whilst the structures have had to be recreated using fallen stone, this flooring is virtually intact and is still home to this little chap, who demonstrates how lions have shrunk over the centuries...!

This is the Temple of Hadrian - the same Hadrian who had the wall built across the north of Britain.

The impressive but reconstructed front of the Library of Celcus faced East so that the reading rooms were lit by the morning sun. Directly opposite this (so behind my back as I took this photograph) was the brothel... Hence the saying "Just popping out for a read at the library, love! I'll be a good hour or so because the Gazette's got an exclusive article about Ephesus United and their chances in the play-off against Alexandria Rovers..."

The Library of Celcus was the third biggest library of the Roman world after Rome itself and Constantinople. It contained over 12,000 scrolls. Many is the man who returned from the library and brothel, fending off the wife with the phrase, "Not tonight, Love - I think I've got the scrolls..."

By turning to my right and walking down Marble Street we arrive at the magnificent theatre. Seating 24,000 spectators, it was the site of sermons by both Apostles St John and St Paul and was the site of the Riot of the Silversmiths, described in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible. Marble is a slippery surface to walk on. I stood on a sloping piece and my sandalled foot slid forward quickly only coming to a stop when my second toe collided with the edge of another solid chunk of marble... Several people went "Ooh..." but let me tell you, dear readers, that their sympathy was lost on me just for the moment...!

Leading between the theatre and the harbour (which has silted up - the sea is now 6 miles away) is the Arcadian Way or Harbour Street, an 11-metre wide thoroughfare along which many notables of the time must have walked or ridden. Mark Anthony and Cleopatra walked hand in hand down the road, but there again, so did I and Fran! And strangely none of the guidebooks mention that!

We returned to the port and I quickly declined the attempts to wave us into a carpet shop for a demonstration (hard sell) and Turkish hospitality (which you are asked to pay for afterwards...)

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