After visiting the toilets, we went to the Terraced Houses. These are fascinating two storied structures constructed around 1BC as luxurious homes for the rich. The were constantly inhabited through to the 7th century AD when the silting up of the harbour led to many people moving away. Gradually they fell into disrepair and landslides filled them up - which ironically helped preserve them. There are around 78 rooms and different wall drawings of which 8 have been restored. In some of the rooms there were up to five drawings that had been drawn on each other at different times. It costs around 40,000 euros per room for restoration and so corporate sponsorship is sought to assist with this cost. The whole site brings in around 8 million lira a year from over 2 million visitors per year.
The entire complex is covered in a huge 'tent' which gives welcome respite from the sun. It is a wonderful idea and means that the site can be well preserved as they endeavour to restore it. Having said that, there was no air conditioning so it was very hot in there and its constant stairs and narrow gangways so a bit of exertion required. It costs extra to go inside but we felt it was well worth it.
You can see here a corner where there are multiple levels of fresco illustrating how the walls have been replastered and redecorated over the centuries. It amused me slightly that each time they did this the room would have got a little smaller. It also reminded me of when we bought our first house and had to strip back 4 layers of wall paper where the previous owners had just papered over the old each time.
What fascinated me is that this place is like the world's largest jigsaw puzzle. The sheer scope of what they are trying to do is mind-blowing. It would be nice to think that over time the paint peeled a little and maybe they had to dig away some dirt, but in reality they are faced with tens of thousands of small pieces of marble etc that they are trying to piece together again. And they are actually slowly making headway in this daunting task!
Here you see boxes and boxes of tiny fragments that need to be pieced together.
The marble panels on the walls are formed by cutting sheets of marble off a larger block (I still can't get my head around how they managed that!) and then putting the matching pieces together so they form a mirror image. This helped the archeologists piece them together again.
Here you can see 'B' scratched into both panels - one in mirror image - to indicate which panels should be placed together when it was first installed.
The frescos on the walls were amazing. I studied some of them when I did my Classics degree so it was wonderful to see them 'in the flesh'. Again, they were in the process of restoring some of them.
I am also hopelessly addicted to mosaics - as will become painfully obvious as we visit Istanbul then Paris. I adore them and find the whole process of creating them to be fascinating. So I took lots of photos of the mosaics here! They really were very beautiful!
As we exited the top of the terraced houses it was good to get back where there was a little breeze even though the weather was still very hot. From here we had an amazing view of the Marble Road - which stretches from the great theatre to the Celsus Library, next to the terraced houses.
But first the iconic Celsus Library!
A few more random architectural elements
We then headed down the Marble Road...
...where we stopped to admire what we were told is the first in history - an advertisement of the Brothel. 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.
Following in that same mercantile spirit, we continued till we came to a large open area that used to be a huge market with 200 or more shops/stalls.
Our last stop at Ephesus was the great theatre which was constructed in the 3rd century BC and then enlarged in the Roman period. It is three stories high with 66 rows of seats and held 25,000 people. It was used not only for concerts and plays, but also for religious, political and philosophical discussions and for gladiator and animal fights.
By then we were hot, tired and hungry! I think I can speak for all four of us when I say we were pining for air conditioning! Atilla scooted us at high speed past the shops outside the exit to Ephesus. He had called the driver and had him waiting for us to take us to the promised lunch and obligatory carpet demonstration.
Well! This was the big disappointment of the day! We were promised a traditional turkish lunch and ended up with two deep fried cheese sticks and a slice of watermelon each. They were very tasty and hit the spot for me but Darling Husband was inconsolable! Apparently the kitchen was opening later in the day due to it being Ramadan. It would have been nice to have been told about this earlier! Seriously though, it was a shame but we survived.
The carpet co-op visit was fascinating. Here they showed us the silk worm cocoons which the silk worm spins around itself with one continuous thread that can be a mile long. These cocoons are then boiled to kill the worms and loosen the bonds of the thread. Using a interesting tool that looks a bit like a cut off bunch of straw, the worker dabs at the surface of the water, picking up the ends of dozens of unraveled fibres. These are then hooked over a device that then collected the unravelled threads into a skein of threads. These are later treated and dyed before being used for carpets and other textiles.
We were also shown an example of someone working at a massive loom to know a carpet. These carpets take months to complete using a double knotting technique which will (according to our guide) last for centuries. This centre is a co-op sponsored by the Turkish government. Here they train women in carpet weaving and supply them with looms, thread and patterns to take home. Women will work on and off for hours every day, amongst their other tasks and responsibilities, and when the carpets are complete they return them to the co-op to be sold. I like this model, and properly done it can be a significant source of training and income for women - which enriches families and societies as well as preserving irreplaceable cultural techniques.
The woman doing this was amazing! Her hands moved so fast they were almost a blur! He got her to slow down and show us each step several times and each time she speeded up again it was unreal how fast and deftly she was managing to knot these threads.
We were then taken to a large room where a team of two men unrolled and spun carpets like a pair of magicians! It was here that we ate the infamous non-lunch as we watched.
Obviously the intent was very clearly to get us to buy a carpet and they certainly were very beautiful! But almost impossible to tuck under our arm and schlep back to NZ - and I wasn't keen to trust the whole idea of them shipping it.
However, I coveted a carpet and last June we had had an unfortunate 'carpet vs wallpaper' incident in our stairwell when trying to get our kingsized mattress downstairs to be replaced with our new bedroom suite. This left an Italy shaped gash in the wallpaper in our stairwell and I had long had the feeling that a nice carpet from Turkey hung on the wall would be JUST the thing to cover up this unsightly mark.
We only wanted a small one but their prices made us gasp! We walked away three times before the price came down to something we were willing to pay. I won't reveal how much it was, but we later calculated that we managed to reduce the opening price to 41% so we were happy with that!
Happy they had made a sale, they then sewed rings on the back so it could be hung and packaged it up neatly in brown paper and a canvas bag so we could carry it home. It was all very professional though I think many people would have been daunted by how determined they were to make the sale. My husband and I regarded it as a game that we were happy to walk away from and we had a lot of fun haggling.
After that, we were returned to the ship in plenty of time for sail away. All in all, it had been a very successful excursion and we were super happy with the tour company we chose.
But we were hungry after our lack of lunch so the first thing was to race up to the small buffet by the pool for a snack and a well deserved cool drink.
One thing led to another, as they do. And we had to have another drink - this time whilst lounging in the sun.
Tonight was the 'Meet the Captain' cocktail party in the TopSail Lounge so we duly showered, changed and made ourselves presentable. This was a fascinating experience. Firstly because I got to try a new 'drink' which was surprisingly potent alcoholic jelly cubes. 
And then also because we got to meet the captain and view his impressive entourage as they made their way from table to table. He was a very pleasant and charming man who we spoke to only briefly. Accompanying him were his personal butler, the photographer, one of the concierges, and two unspecified young women who stayed behind to chat - i.e. gush about how amazingly wonderful the captain is and how lucky they feel to be on his ship. They were very sweet and sincere but I'm afraid I'm very cynical about that kind of thing after spending years with a close association with consecrated women in the Regnum Christi movement who gush in a similar manner. 
In other news, tasty snacks were served and by the time we staggered out for dinner my darling husband had accidentally had three vodka martinis.
Tonight we went to the show first - The Witches of Paris. It was excellent though my husband was rather taken aback by the prosthetic noses and chins that marred the otherwise gorgeous features of the dancers and singers. Poor man! 
Then, because our inhibitions were sufficiently lowered, we (i.e. I) decided on the spur of the moment to have our photos taken. Poor darling hubby was still feeling the effects of the martinis and it was hilarious to watch him try to grasp what pose the photographer wanted him to adopt when he was only communicating in mime. We did, however manage to get a lovely photo of the two of us.
Dinner ensued (with accompanying wines and a limoncello to finish) and following this a somewhat stupefied sleep ready for our next big day at Istanbul.
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