[Travelogue] Turkey Trip, Day 3 | Kusadasi, House of Virgin Mary, Ephesus, Pamukkale and Hierapolis :)
By Lasmarya Hadi Purwanto - July 12, 2016
Hey there!
Are you still keeping up with my story? Haha
I hope you do :)
I hope you do :)
Okay, so the next morning, the morning of the third day, waking up in the Vista Hill Hotel and having breakfast with the breath-taking view of the Aegean Sea is another so-good-it-can't-be-real thing of the whole trip. Yes, this is something I could only dream of before, something that just seemed out of my league. I am super grateful for this beautiful experience.
The third day's itinerary is the day with the most stops made during the whole trip.
For the very first stop, we stopped by Popular Leather at Kusadasi to watch the fashion show and to get to know their popular leather coat. Kusadasi is well known for their leather coat which is made from lamb's hide, (while other countries' leather coat are usually made of cow's hide). Leather coat made of lamb's is said to be softer, lighter, won't easily stretched over time and it is also waterproof. It is very comfortable to wear, and the Turkish lamb leather coat is so famous all over the world, that they are the biggest exporter of the leather. The leather coat they produce are usually exported to Europe and labelled by Burberry, Miu Miu, Armani etc., where the price sold there will be double the price in Kusadasi.
For the very first stop, we stopped by Popular Leather at Kusadasi to watch the fashion show and to get to know their popular leather coat. Kusadasi is well known for their leather coat which is made from lamb's hide, (while other countries' leather coat are usually made of cow's hide). Leather coat made of lamb's is said to be softer, lighter, won't easily stretched over time and it is also waterproof. It is very comfortable to wear, and the Turkish lamb leather coat is so famous all over the world, that they are the biggest exporter of the leather. The leather coat they produce are usually exported to Europe and labelled by Burberry, Miu Miu, Armani etc., where the price sold there will be double the price in Kusadasi.
Jenny and I got the honor to walk on the catwalk with the models and wear their exclusive leather coats!!! The models are all so good-looking and they are very friendly! And the leather coat is really soft, comfy and tends to make you look good!! I'm so glad to have that great chance to feel it on my skin even only for a few minutes!! Aah, I'm so happy hihi
And they're selling these trendy leather coats in half price of the price with labels (Burberry etc) on, and they add another 40% off if we pay with credit cards or 50% off in cash, and it is still negotiable.
The sad thing is Turkey's tourism is currently declining a lot due to the terrorism attack these past few months. And the tourism industry is severely affected by it. According to our tour guide, the businesses that depend a lot on the tourism suffered so much and they're facing the possibility of unemployment that the government has even released a new rule that the leather industry doesn't have to pay tax for the leather sold so that they can set cheaper price to their products and attract tourists to buy.
Even in the souvenir shop the previous day, the owner gave us a too-kind-hearted-that-it-makes-you-think-he's-desperate discount, His family has been producing their own olive oil line for generations, and he gave us buy one free one for the olive oil that he sells, with a lot of other discounts cause the sales this year has been dropping a lot! The owner is such a great guy though! A very hardworking and humorous one!
The second stop is at the House of Virgin Mary. This stone building is believed to be the house that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken to by Saint John (we visited his Basilica and tomb on the previous post) and lived there until the Assumption.
"At the beginning of the 19th century, Anne Catherine Emmerich, a bedridden Augustinian nun in Germany, reported a series of visions in which she recounted the last days of the life of Jesus, and details of the life of Mary, his mother.
One of Emmerich's accounts was a description of the house the Apostle John had built in Ephesus for Mary, the mother of Jesus, where she had lived to the end of her life. Emmerich provided a number of details about the location of the house, and the topography of the surrounding area:[8]
Emmerich also described the details of the house: that it was built with rectangular stones, that the windows were high up near the flat roof and that it consisted of two parts with a hearth at the center of the house. She further described the location of the doors, the shape of the chimney, etc.
On October 18, 1881, relying on the descriptions in the book by Brentano based on his conversations with Emmerich, a French priest, the AbbéJulien Gouyet discovered a small stone building on a mountain overlooking the Aegean Sea and the ruins of ancient Ephesus in Turkey. He believed it was the house described by Emmerich and where the Virgin Mary had lived the final years of her life.
Every year pilgrims made a pilgrimage to the site on August 15, the date on which most of the Christian world celebrated Mary's Dormition/Assumption." - Wikipedia
(Queuing to get in, no photos are allowed inside)
It was really solemn inside.
Went straight to drinking the water from three taps. You got to choose to drink from only one tap, as each one of them has their own meaning. There are happiness, health and wealth. Our tour guide asked us to choose one before telling us which is which.
I randomly picked one, and I got the one wishing for wealth. $.$
(*spoiler alert! If you wish to know which one is which, let me know thru the comment below, XD )
The Wishing Wall
People visiting the House of Virgin Mary will write their wish on a paper and tie it on the wall. These are the accumulation of years' wishes. Wish they all come true. :)
Ephesus was a flourishing city back in the ancient times after it came under the control of the Roman Empire, although it was built by the Greeks. The city was partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614 AD.
The Symbol of Medicine
This stone symbolizes that the building behind was a hospital.
"In ancient time probably one of the temples was used as the gathering place for ill people in Ephesus. The priests did not want their temple to be known as “the place to go to die.” If a patient was considered near death or seriously sick, he or she was sent back home to pray for Gods and return in a few days it means those too sick to survive were sent home to die."
-ephesus.us
Once, there was a man who was rejected by the the hospital. Going back home knowing that he would die soon, he saw a snake in front of the hospital and decided to eat the snake so that he could die soon, so that he wouldn't have to suffer anymore. But instead, he didn't die, he became healthier, since then, snake has become the symbol of health as depicted in the stone carving.
This stone symbolizes that the building behind was a hospital.
"In ancient time probably one of the temples was used as the gathering place for ill people in Ephesus. The priests did not want their temple to be known as “the place to go to die.” If a patient was considered near death or seriously sick, he or she was sent back home to pray for Gods and return in a few days it means those too sick to survive were sent home to die."
-ephesus.us
Once, there was a man who was rejected by the the hospital. Going back home knowing that he would die soon, he saw a snake in front of the hospital and decided to eat the snake so that he could die soon, so that he wouldn't have to suffer anymore. But instead, he didn't die, he became healthier, since then, snake has become the symbol of health as depicted in the stone carving.
The Stone Carving of the Goddess Nike, or the Winged Goddess of Victory.
Trivia:
The sports equipment company Nike, Inc. is named after the Greek goddess Nike, and so is its logo.
(See how crowded it is although under blazing hot sun!)
a.k.a "Love House"
Based on what our local tour guide's explanation, the men of Ephesus would tell their wives that they went to study at the Library of Celcus, when in fact they would use this secret way underground that connect the Library to the Brothel, which was located across the road, and spent the night there instead of studying.
This temple was built and was dedicated to Emperor Hadrian who came to visit the city from Athens in 128 A.D.
The curved arch in the middle of the facade of the temple contains a relief of Tyche (Roman: Fortuna), the goddess of fortune and luck. Goddess Fortuna symbolizes that women hold the burden of the world; without women, there won't be any life.
"Inside the temple above the door, a human figure, probably Medusa stands with ornaments of acanthus leaves. On both sides there are friezes depicting the story of the foundation of Ephesus - Androklos shooting a boar, Dionysus in ceremonial procession and the Amazons. The fourth frieze portrays two male figures, one of which is Apollo; Athena, goddess of the moon; a female figure, Androkles, Herakles, the wife and son of Theodosius and the goddess Athena."
- ephesus.us
"On the marble road, there are some drawings believed to be an advertisement of the Brothel. This advertisement is known as the first advertisement in history. There is a footprint on the advertisement, one finger showing the library, and other showing the brothel. The known explanation of this sign is that the footprint shows that one should turn at that point; the woman's head symbolizes the women waiting in the Brothel and the heart shows that the women are eager for love." -ephesus.us
Ephesus is famous for its Temple of Artemis (completely destroyed), the Library of Celcus and the theater which is said to be capable of holding 25,000 spectators. "This open-air theatre was used initially for drama, but during later Roman times gladiatorial combats were also held on its stage; the first archaeological evidence of a gladiator graveyard was found in May 2007."-Wikipedia
The Wall Handcuffs
In ancient times, the criminal would have his hand tied in the hole so that the citizens could see that he had committed a crime.
More about Ephesus, click here.
Both Pamukkale and Hierapolis have been declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish and is located in Denizli Province.
They say bathing in the hot springs in Pamukkale is good for our health and for skin. :)
Both Pamukkale and Hierapolis have been declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Pamukkale means "cotton castle" in Turkish and is located in Denizli Province.
They say bathing in the hot springs in Pamukkale is good for our health and for skin. :)
The ancient city of Hierapolis (Hiera is a name of a queen, while Polis means "city") was founded on top of the "white castle"/Pamukkale as a thermal spa early at the 2nd century BC. It became a healing centre where doctors used the thermal springs as a treatment for their patients.
The main tourist attraction in Hierapolis is Cleopatra's Pool. It is an ancient man made pool in the complex area of Hierapolis, and it is said that Cleopatra once took a bath here, and it's one of the reasons why she was so pretty.
And tried the well-known Turkish ice-cream! The seller really played you around first with his tricks before he handed the ice-cream to you. Haha It was fun :)
Lastly, the complete look of Pamukkale as taken by Jenny from our moving bus on the way to hotel.
I was too busy admiring the view that I didn't even think of taking picture of it. >.<
Ended the day with 20 minutes ride to Lycus River Thermal Hotel. The hotel is famous for its thermal pool, which flows from natural hot spring. But the weather was too hot, and I was definitely not tempted to dip myself in boiling hot water.
And there goes the diary for the day 3 of my recent Turkey Trip.
Will be back soon with day 4!
XD
See you soon
xoxo
sillyandordinarygirl
:D
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