DAY 2
        Our bus will take us to Olympic airport for the 1-hour flight to Samos, a Greek island just off the Turkish coast. Samos reached the height of its wealth and prestige during the 6th century BC under the tyrant Polykrates, when it became the home of notable sculptors, architects, and poets. The fabulist Aesop was born here, as were the poets Ibycus and Anacreon; the most famous Samian was Pythagoras, who migrated from here to south Italy around 530. We’ll have time for a look around the capital Vathy and have lunch at the pretty village Kokari; we’ll also visit the Archaeological Museum with its incredible 16-feet high kouros and, if time permits, we’ll visit the Heraion. At 5 PM we'll take the 90-minute ferry (or 45-minute hydrofoil) to Kusadasi on the Turkish coast, where our bus will meet us and take us to our hotel.

                                      
                                                          Samos

DAY 3
        Today we’ll see the Ephesus Museum and the site of ancient Ephesus.
        Ephesus was the second most important city in Greek Asia Minor during the Archaic and Classical periods (Miletus being the first), and by the Hellenistic and Roman periods Ephesus’ position was rivalled only by that of Alexandria. During antiquity Ephesus was a port; the silting of the river Kayster (a branch of the Maeander) forced the Ephesians to move twice in ancient times, and now the sea is some 7 miles to the west. The history of Ephesus is similar to that of the other Ionian cities:  colonized by Ionian Greeks (in myth, under the leadership of the Athenian prince Androklos), Ephesus became rich and culturally advanced by the end of the Archaic period, despite being conquered by the Lydian king Croesus in the 6th century and then, with the rest of Lydia, passing into the control of Persia. After the break-up of Alexander’s kingdom upon his death. Ephesus professed allegiance to virtually all the Hellenistic kingdoms at one time or another, finally coming under the power of the Pergameme kingdom and, after the death of Attalos III. entering the Roman empire. The wealth and importance of Ephesus reached its height during the first two centuries of the Roman empire, when it became the capital of the Roman province of Asia and the residence of the Roman governor. The population of Ephesus during the early empire has been estimated at close to 300,000, and it was the cultural and commercial, as well as political, center of western Asia
        Ephesus was a religious center as well. The first Greeks to arrive there found the cult of the Asian mother-goddess Kybele and transformed their own goddess Artemis into a version of this eastern deity. The original temple of Artemis was built in the 8th century, and a second was under construction when Croesus arrived in the 6th century; this temple was destroyed by arson in 356 (on the night of Alexander’s birth), and a new temple was built which was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world (the other six were the Egyptian pyramids. the Colossus of Rhodes, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the lighthouse of Alexandria, and the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus). Today only a few miserable fragments remain of this famous structure. Christianity quickly achieved a foothold in Ephesus; St. John visited here (supposedly with the Virgin Mary) and his grave is in the Church of St. John (a 6th century basilica built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian). St. Paul lived in Ephesus for three years and was apparently so successful that the silversmiths who made statues of Artemis/Diana were losing money: they organized a large demonstration and Paul left town.
        By the 6th century AD silt again made the port unusable, and the city was moved to the vicinity of the Church of St. John.  Near the church was built a citadel whose ruins are the most prominent site in Selcuk today.  With the coming of the Turks Ephesus was renamed Ayasoluk (a Turkish version of the Byzantine name Ayios Theologos), and in 1914 Ayasoluk became Selcuk.
        We'll begin with a visit to the Ephesus Museum, one of the most interesting in Turkey. 

        We pass through the entrance hall to the room in which are kept the finds from the restored Roman houses called the “Terrace Villas”; note especially the large Priapus (a garden watch-god), the bronze statue of an Egyptian priest (centuries older than the house in which it was found), and the fresco of Diana (appearing here in her more familiar guise as a short-skirted huntress).  In the next two rooms pedimental sculptures from the Pollio Fountain show Odysseus blinding the Cyclops, and there are exquisite ivory furniture decorations..  In the rear courtyard are several large pieces, including a sarcophagus with reliefs of the Muses and a large curved stone inscription which stood in the harbor and listed customs and tax regulations.  The next room has pottery and funerary remains and a chart showing the various forms taken over the centuries by Anatolian goddesses.  The highlight of the museum is the display of objects from the Artemision (the precinct of Artemis), especially the two great statues of the Ephesian Artemis; she is fully clothed and looks almost like a pillar, wearing a headdress like a capital.  The rows of oval objects across her chest have been interpreted as multiple breasts, fruit, eggs, and most recently as bulls’ testicles (odd as it may seem, this last interpretation may be closest to the truth).  She seems utterly different from the Artemis of mainland Greek religion and cult, the only visual connection between the two goddesses being the numerous animals portrayed on her lower limbs (since the Greek Artemis was a huntress and was associated with forests, wild animals, and fertility).  In fact (although this probably has little, if anything, to do with their eventual identification), both Artemises perhaps derive from a common ancestress, the fertility goddess of the Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC) in Asia Minor, Greece, the Cycladic islands, and Crete (where she appears on seals as the “mistress of animals,” a title given to Artemis by the historical Greeks).  The last room contains representations of various Roman emperors. 
        After lunch in Selcuk there will be time for those who wish to visit the Byzantine church of St. John (built during the reign of Justinian).  Then we’ll drive 5 minutes to the site of ancient Ephesus (actually, the Hellenistic and Roman site; the early city, just south of the temple of Artemis, cannot be excavated because of the high water table). 
        We'll stop briefly at what remains of the Temple of Artemis (the Artemision), then drive by the Magnesia Gate and the East Gymnasium, then go on foot down the ancient road (called Curetes Street) by the Prytaneion, the Upper Agora, and the Odeion.  Next to the temple of Domitian is the Pollio Fountain, where the pediment we saw in the museum was located.  Across from the Trajan fountain and the temple of Hadrian are the restored Terrace Villas.  At present two of these villas are open; each consists of around 10 rooms around a central court and they are decorated with beautiful frescoes and mosaics.  Their owners are unknown but they must have been rich Ephesians of the Roman Imperial period.  The two buildings (separated by the famed public toilet with marble seats) are the Scholasticia Bath, restored by a Roman lady of this name in the 4th century a.d., and what used to be called the brothel; half-way between the "brothel" (now regarded as some kind of public building) and the theater a sign is etched in the marble street — a left foot, a heart, and a figure of a woman, fancifully interpreted as a sign telling passers-by that the brothel is just ahead to the left.  The two most striking buildings at Ephesus are the theater and the Library of Celsus.  The library is the tomb and memorial of Gaius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, proconsul of Asia in 106 AD, and was built by his son Aquila.  Thanks to years of restoration by the Austrian excavators, the two-story facade is virtually complete; the books were kept in rectangular niches in the walls of the inner room.

        In front of the library a three-arched gate leads to the Lower Agora; the inscription above the arches records the gate’s dedication by the freedmen Mithridates and Mazaeus to the emperor Augustus and his son-in-law Agrippa.  The theater was built probably around 300 BC and extensively remodeled during the 1st century AD.  It held 24,000 viewers and is still in use today for musical and theatrical events.  The marble road leading from the theater to the ancient harbor is named Arcadiane for the emperor Arcadius (395-408 a.d.) and was one of the few ancient streets  to have street lighting. On the north side of this road are the Harbor Baths and a gymnasium; walking between these structures we come to the lower parking lot, where our bus is waiting. Just before the parking lot a path turns off to the left to the Mary Church, a large Roman building whose west half was converted to a Christian basilica of the Virgin Mary during the 3rd century. Driving out we pass the poorly-preserved stadium and the baths of the 2nd century Vedius gymnasium.

                           
                                  Peter Lorre retired to Turkey

DAY 4
        This is one of the best site-seeing days of the tour, taking in Miletus, Didyma, and Euromus.
    Miletus was the most important city in the Greek world during the first part of the 6th century BC.        
        Here philosophy began, under a succession of famous names: Thales, who predicted an eclipse of the sun in 585, founded geometry, and taught that the fundamental material of the universe is water; his successor Anaximander, who taught evolution, drew the first map of the earth, and believed that the basic principle of the universe is the “Unlimited;” and Anaximander’s pupil Anaximenes, who taught that the universe is consituted by the condensation and rarefaction of divine air. Also from this period was the first Greek geographer Hekataios, who traveled in Egypt and Asia and wrote a “Journey around the World.” In 499 Miletus led a revolt against Persia (the “Ionian Revolt”) which was put down in 494 after a naval defeat at Lade, then an island off Miletus but now, thanks to the silting of the delta, one of the hills west of the ruins. During the 4th century Miletus came under the control of Mausolos of Halicarnassus, was liberated by Alexander, and eventually became part of the Roman province of Asia. It shared in the wealth of the Roman empire, but gradually declined as shipping was prevented by the silting of the harbor.
        From the parking lot we walk directly to the theater (the water in the plan by the entrance to the site is of course no longer in our path). The theater, originally built in the 4th century, was enlarged during Hellenistic and Roman times from a capacity of 5,300 to 25,000. Only the bottom half of the seating area is preserved; the large structure in the upper part of the audience is part of a Byzantine fortress. Walking around the theater and over the theater hill, we come to the port and city center. Two hellenistic lion statues guard the entrance to the harbor, and the large harbor monument  commemorates Pompey’s victory over the pirates in 63 BC and Augustus’ victory at Actium in 31. The harbor gate leads via the Processional Road to the South Agora.  To the left of the gate are a Greco-Roman bath and the Delphinion, a Hellenistic precinct of Apollo. On the left side of the road are a partially reconstructed Ionic Stoa, a 15th century Selcuk bath, the Capito baths, a Hellenistic gymnasium, and a 2nd century AD fountain-house. On the right side are the North Agora , and the Bouleuterion.  Next we come to a long storehouse and a small temple of Serapis with a well-preserved pediment.
        Our final stops are at the Ilyas Bey mosque, completed in 1404 and one of the great examples of Selcuk architecture, and at the monumental Faustina bath complex, built by the wife of the emperor Marcus Aurelius.

                             
                                              Miletus:  Ionic Stoa

        From Miletus a Sacred Road led to the sanctuary of Apollo at Didyma, and we’ll now follow this route.

        Didyma was never a city; it was the religious center for Miletus and one of the most famous oracles of antiquity. The archaic temple  (which, according to Pausanias, replaced an earlier [i.e., indigenous] cult shrine), was renowned throughout the Greek world; before it was destroyed by the Persians in 494 BC., it received gifts from the Pharaoh Necho and from Croesus of Lydia. A new larger temple on the same model was begun by 300 BC and still not completed 500 years later: most of this temple still stands.
         A small inner temple (naiskos), which once contained a statue of Apollo, is within the interior walls (cella); the room in which the oracles were actually delivered is up a flight of stairs at the opposite end of the courtyard, flanked on either side by labyrinths.  The entrances to the courtyard are through tunnels under the labyrinths. The dimensions of the whole temple are 623 by 167 feet.

                    
                                       Didyma:  fallen column      

      From Didyma we’ll drive south to the Mediterranean coast, stopping once to see the 2nd century Temple of Zeus at ancient Euromus, a pleasant contrast to the gigantic temple at Didyma.
      We'll reach the Mediterranean at Dalyan, a picturesque village on the Dalyan River.  High on the cliff-side opposite the village is one of the most imposing sights in Lycia, a group of Karian temple-tombs carved into the rock, most of them from the 4th century BC.  Dalyan is a very pleasant village, with good restaurants overlooking the rushing river and a spectacular view of the temple-tombs.
        We’ll charter a small boat for the trip down the river, passing first through forests of reeds like a scene from The African Queen, to the site of ancient Kaunos. Once a bustling port, Kaunos is now separated from the sea by about three miles of marsh. The most interesting ruins at Kaunos are a Roman nymphaeum called the Fountain of Vespasian, a circular structure which may have been a pool, and, on a higher level, a Roman bath, an early Christian church, and a small but well-preserved theater. The long sandbar at the mouth of the Dalyan River was for several years the subject of a raging dispute between developers and conservationists; the latter wanted to protect the area, which is one of the last breeding places for the Mediterranean sea turtle, and against all expectations they won!
        This is where we'll meet our private yacht, or gulet.  These typical Turkish motor sailers are hand-made of pine and teak, averaging 70-100 feet in length, with two masts and 6-10 cabins.  We'll stay on the boat tonight and for the next two days and nights. 

Istanbul, Archaeological Museum:  frieze from the "Alexander" sarcophagus

Istanbul, Archaeological Museum:  Diana

Istanbul, Museum of the Ancient Orient: :fragment of Ishtar Gate, Babylon