On the eighth day of coming to Turkey, we moved from Pamukkale, a world tourist attraction, to Selçuk, a coastal city in southern Turkey. What does Selcuk have? Of course it is the world-famous “Ancient City of Ephesus!” The two places are not far apart, and you can drive up to two hours to reach it. Friends who travel a lot or those who love history should be familiar with the ancient city of Ephesus (Efes), which is the best-preserved ancient city site on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and it was also an important center during the birth of early Christianity.
Some Turkish archaeologists once said that they had found evidence of human activities in the Buddha’s place around 6000 BC. Once the news was released, it immediately caused a sensation in the global archaeological community. Think about it, what era is 6000 BC? “Of course it was the Neolithic Age.” During this period, humans living in Europe were still relying on jungle hunting, and their skin was dark brown. If cultural relics can be found in Ephesus, it means that this area was already the most civilized area in Europe at that time.
The current mainstream evidence shows that the ancient city of Ephesus was built around the 10th century BC, and in its early days was a trading city managed by ancient Greeks. It was later taken over by the ancient Romans, and its status was elevated to the second largest city in Europe after the imperial city of the Roman Empire. By the 1st century AD, this pivotal city had a population of over 250,000. Interestingly, Ephesus has the world’s earliest urbanization facility-public toilets. But the public toilets at the time were not only for people’s physiological needs, but also very important for social occasions! Although the toilets were all built with big stones, they were also an important social place for the nobles and merchants to discuss matters at that time. It is said that in winter, before the rich go to the toilet, they will spend money to let the poor or their entourage sit on the table to warm the countertop before using it by themselves. In addition, there is also a very old commercial pedestrian street-Arcadia Street, as well as the ancient Roman theater that can accommodate 25,000 people at the same time! After more than a thousand years, this ancient city with a heavy history of civilization went through several ups and downs, and finally began to decline gradually from the 15th century. In any case, the past civilization and glory cannot be reproduced, but the existing relics are enough to prove the history of 2000 years ago. How brilliant is Ephesus. Since the train transportation from Selcuk to Izmir is very convenient, we also want to experience the local train journey, so we returned the previously rented car in Selcuk and took only one hour by train. We arrived in downtown Izmir. Although this is the third largest city in Turkey, it is only our transit station. You don’t want to stay in Izmir for too long, so you just wandered along the Aegean coast. Here you can clearly feel the difference between the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea: most of the water in the Mediterranean Sea is cyan, while the Aegean Sea is blue. I asked a local who was standing by my side watching the sea “Is the Aegean beautiful?” He said that he had watched it for many years, and he didn’t think it was particularly beautiful. If the perfect score is 100, it can only be given to 60 or 70. But I think the Aegean Sea in Izmir is particularly beautiful. After flying back to Istanbul from Izmir, we took advantage of the last afternoon free time to visit the most famous local Bazaar (Kapali Carsi). Almost all Chinese tourists who have been to Istanbul have visited here. It is said that this is one of the largest and oldest trading markets in the world. It has at least 22 entrances, 26 exits, 58 indoor streets, and more than 4,000 shops. Shops. The Grand Bazaar was originally built in 1455 (completed in 1461) by the seventh-generation Sultan of Ottoman Turkey, Sultan Mohammed II. It is known for its Middle Eastern style jewelry, local lamps, Turkish ceramics, Indian spices, and Persian carpets. Yu Shi. When savvy buyers and tourists visit the Grand Bazaar, they will slam their faces when they see the products they like, otherwise the person who is “slaughtered” must be yourself. Even in the Grand Bazaar, each store owner’s price is different for the same product. If you plan to buy some special souvenirs, it’s best to stroll around the more remote Bazaar streets. In order not to buy inferior handicrafts, we even spent an hour and a half in front of a pottery workshop, watching the craftsmen production on spot. In the end, I got a beautiful ceramic bottle. In addition to hand made on the bottom of the bottle, there was also the word “lead”. Someone was staring at it. The craftsman’s craftsmanship is indeed very high, but the price is three times that of ordinary bottles. The city of Istanbul at night is still so charming, taxis passing by noisy neighborhoods, churches and mosques illuminated by spotlights are even more sacred, and the smell of barbecue and roasted chestnuts from time to time outside the car windows makes people move their index fingers. The dessert stalls on the roadside are filled with all kinds of exquisite chocolates. As long as you look at it, you can’t help feeling the silky and fragrant taste. It’s just like Turkey itself, with the mysterious in it. The temptation to resist
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