Selcuk, Turkey

The Cella Hotel and Spa was lovely and clean and featured some exquisite design features reflecting the historic location of Selcuk itself (the ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus lie adjacent to the town). The staff were extremely friendly and ever-ready to help throughout our stay. Here are some photographs of the hotel and its staff:

Tradition has it that the Apostle John wrote his gospel whilst on the Ayasuluk Hill in Ephesus/Selcuk

He is also reputed to have been buried on the hill. Emperor Justinian I had a basilica built over the supposed burial spot in the sixth century.

At the bottom of the hill is the Isa Bey Mosque. This was built in around 1374

Pamukkale was about a 3 hour drive away from Selcuk. It literally means "Cotton Castle". It's basically a hill which has turned white due to the deposit of salt from the waters flowing down the hillside. We walked up the hill from the south side. It is necessary to do this bare-foot as it is a world heritage site and it is feared that leaving shoes on will damage this natural wonder.

The main reason that we chose to go to Selcuk was so that we could once more visit the ancient ruins at Ephesus.

The city has suffered a number of earthquakes as well as destruction following the fall of the Roman Empire. At its height though, it housed a thriving community of around 200,00 people. The most well-known building remaining is probably the Celsus Library. However, it was once the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - the Temple of Artemis (or Diana). The remains of that Temple are virtually none existant. What is remaining can be seen in the final two photographs on this page (i.e. one column! ... and even that has been artificially erected from stone fragments that were lying around the area).

We'd read that Priene was one of the best preserved ancient site so we drove over there during our stay in Selcuk

It didn't turn out that well preserved. The Temple of Athena was virtually destroyed. The theatre at least remained fairly intact.

Saw a decent-sized lizard too!

The first few photographs on this page are of some of the exhibits in the Artemis Museum in Selcuk. It is an excellent museum and some of the exhibits are in a very good state of repair despite their great antiquity(The coins are from the reign of Emperor Augustus).

There then follow some photographs of the Wallabies Restaurant which is situated adjacent to remains of the Byzantine Aqueduct in the centre of Selcuk. We found Wallabies to be the best restaurant in Selcuk (I would definitely recommend the Chicken Stroganoff!!).

Finally there are a few shots taken on a visit to the nearby port of Kusadasi

The last place we visited whilst on our holiday in Turkey was the city of Izmir. This is the third largest city in Turkey (behind Istanbul and Ankara). It was formerly called Smyrna.