We arrived in Izmir from Kayseri and headed straight to the ruins of Ephesus, the Roman port city famed as the honeymoon spot of Antony and Cleopatra, and later for St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Paul’s fellow apostle, John, died at 98 and was buried here. He is the only one of the 12 apostles not to have been hung, stabbed or beheaded by the Romans. The Christian Emperor Justinian later built a cathedral over John’s tomb that was the seventh largest in the world at the time. The Virgin Mary is purported to have breathed her last there as well. We visited a shrine up on a hill where her house was alleged to have been, but who really knows? It is a lovely spot and nice to imagine Mary living out her last days in peaceful solitude, but the site is also probably missable for all but the truly devoted.

Ephesus itself, on the other hand, is one of those places you should see, especially for any aficionados of the Ancient World. We we lucky enough to have gone on a day of limited cruise ship activity and thus the crowds were smaller, but not unavoidable. (Three cruise ships were in port the next day). The photos at the top of this post are of the 24,000-seat theater, where the Romans would have watched plays or gladiator combat, and the library, which was one of the largest in the world at the time.

Below is something more necessary: the Roman crapper. Imagine sitting cheek to jowl with up to thirty or so of your closet friends? Men only; don’t know what the women did. But they were quite ingenious. There was water running through the latrine that whisked the poop away, likely down to the ocean. They also were smart enough to locate the spice market nearby to mask the aroma. The city had a system of water pipes and also a way to heat some of the homes in winter. (OK, it helped to have a few thousand slaves on hand to stoke the fires and do other grunt work.)