I have this colleague who often posts a sign on his office door, which says "gone to
the library". I did not think too much of it until I visited Ephesos ( Turkish
spelling in English, or Ephesus in more conventional spelling) last August. Arguably
Ephesos was the most interesting ruin on this trip, not because it has the most
magnificent structures still standing after thousands of years ( Athens has those at the
Acropolis), but it is just full of legendary stories. This ruin is located in the present
day Turkey. On the day of our visit, we had a most humorous and charming young lady as our
guide. That helped.
Legend has it that The Virgin Mary died in Ephesos and that Paul visited her every now and
then until she passed on.
Mark Anthony of Cleopatra fame was from Ephesos. He greeted Cleopatra at the city pier
when she sailed from Cairo and walked hand-in hand up to the city on that marble road of
rather substantial fame. They intended to rule the Roman and the Egyptian Empire together
from Ephesos. Of course, the temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient
world, once stood in Ephesos as Peter Tong has mentioned in his interesting article.
Of all the monuments that the Roman emperors built for themselves and the huge Greek
theater along the Marble Road, I still find the Celsus library most entertaining and the
story behind it really poking fun at the "scholars and learned men". The Library
still stands, or some of it still stands. We actually sat at the entrance of the Library
and took a group photo. Across the Celsus Library, once stood a brothel ( or house of
pleasure (?) for men, and perhaps for women as well). That in itself is not too
extraordinary. The fun really started when these guys built a tunnel from the Celsus
Library, leading directly into the House of Pleasure. One may assume the business went up
by a lot after the tunnel was built. All the scholars and learned men had to do was just
to hang a sign on their office doors that said "Gone to the Library".
Need I say more.
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