 Myself and My Dear Wife Ana Last week was my birthday, yey… I mostly prefer to be low key for my birthdays don’t like to make such a big deal about it. However we should find reasons to celebrate life itself, so I guess birthdays are good opportunities for that, so Let’s celebrate it, but low key hahaha.
 Ivory Box from Ephesus Museum Turkey Here comes the first question: Were there any boxes found in Ephesus Ancient City? Of course there were several finds but the most fascinating one was the Ivory Box with 2D reliefs on it depicting a preparation of War and the War itself. This ivory box dated back to 2nd century AD, to Roman Emperor Trajan’s period. During our private ephesus tours, visitors can see this amazing piece only if they choose to visit Ephesus Archaeology Museum in Selcuk.  Bust of Roman Emperor Trajan at Ephesus Museum Turkey While we were doing this whole birthday thing, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking of the importance of the Birthdays of the important people in the Antiquity. What would the Birthdays of Roman Emperors mean? What would Christmas, Jesus’ birthday mean? Are there any birthday related finds in the Ancient City of Ephesus or it’s vicinity?
 Arch of Caracalla at Theveste, Algeria Much of these celebrations were on certain days such as birthdays of the Emperors and the Imperial family members. And according to a Roman Imperial Calendar found in Algeria's Theveste Ancient City there were 64 days of Holidays just for the Imperial Cult inscribed on Arch of Caracalla. Photo Source: Wiki Commons
 Relief of Nero and Agrippina from Aphrodisias Turkey Agrippina, who is Roman Emperor Nero's mother, is known as the only woman in Roman History whose birthday is celebrated. She was the mother of Emperor Nero. And Apparently myself and Roman Emperor Nero share the same date of birth. Nero was born in year 37 AD and became an Emperor in 54 AD at the age of 17 as the successor of Cladius. Photo Source: Wiki Commons Nero is known as the Emperor who fiddled while Rome burned. His reign mostly known with his cruelty and tyranny especially having his own mother executed. In year 64 there was the Great fire of Rome and he died result of a suicide assisted by his secretary in 68 AD which ended the Julio-Claudian dynasty.  Stoa of Nero at Ephesus Ancient City Do we have anything in Ephesus related with Emperor Nero? or Do we see anything while touring Ephesus Ancient City? There is the So Called Stoa of Nero at Ephesus, the marble paved alley that runs from the Library of Celsus to the Theater has a colonnade that formed a sheltered awning for the shops.  Statue of Emperor Augustus at Ephesus Museum Turkey And the birthdays of the Emperors started designating the Beginning of the Year as a tradition. Especially with Emperor Octavian Augustus’ birthday was set as the start of the new year. There was an imperial decree sent to every Roman city, and one of the copy of this decree was found in Priene Ancient City 50 kms. to Ephesus. This must be the core idea behind Celebrating Jesus’ birthday close to the start of the New Year. Otherwise was Jesus really born in December 25?  Temple of Athena at Priene Ancient City Turkey A sacred stoa was located on the north side of Priene’s Agora. In one of the chambers, a sanctuary to Rome and Augustus was housed. In this chamber two tablets dating to the year 9 BC were found containing an inscription dubbed ‘the Emperor’s Gospel’. One tablet records a recommendation made by the Roman proconsul Paulus Fabius Maximus to the assembly of Asia that the provincial calendar should be reorganized to begin the NEW YEAR on SEPTEMBER 23, the birthday of Augustus. The second tablet records the enthusiastic response of the assembly affirming Fabius’ proposal: ‘Since Providance, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us AUGUSTUS, whom she filled weith virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a SAVIOR (soter), both for us and for our descendants, that he might end was and arrange all things, and since he, CAESAR, by his appearance (epiphanein; “epiphany”) [excelled even our anticipations], surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the BIRTHDAY of the GOD AUGUSTUS was the beginning of the GOOD NEWS (euangelion; “gospel”) for the wold that came by reason of him. This letter/decree has several verbal parallels with how Christ is presented in the New Testament. It calls the birth of Caesar Augustus the “beginning” of breath and life (Revelation 3:14) The “honor” of Augustus should remain forever (Revelation 4:9, 5:13, 7:12). In the decree the birthday of the god Augustus is declared to be the “beginning of the good news” for the world. (Mark 1:1, Revelation 14:6) This decree was to be inscribed on a white stone (Revelation 2:17?) and placed in the temple of Rome and Augustus in Pergamum (Pergamon), which served as a repository of such official decrees.  The Inscription from Pergamon Ancient City, today on exhibition in Berlin When I visited the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, In the hall where they exhibit the Gate of Miletus, right across the Gate they had the original inscription of this decree on a marble block from Pergamon’s Trajan Temple.  Temple of Trajan in Pergamon Turkey This block was found in 5 pieces in Pergamon Acropolis, it was probably part of the base of a statue and dates from around the beginning of the Common Era. Reconstructed Greek Inscription reads : To the Emperor CAESAR, Son of God, Sacred God, Custodian of all the Earth and the Sea. God’s Son first refer to the First Roman Emperor Augustus, the formulation: “Custodian of All the Earth and the Sea” indicated Augustus’ entitlement the World domination. So far therefore there seems to be nothing unusual about the inscription plate.
Copies found in Priene, Apamea, Dorylaeum, Eumenea, and Maonia show that this “gospel” of the emperor was distributed widely throughout the province of Asia.  Wow it has been quite a story with so much information, I almost have no space left to tell you how I spent my birthday! It seems like a better idea to spare that part for my next blog story. There will be some beautiful pictures, and of course I will find a way to connect my story to the Antiquity and also to Ephesus.
So please stay tuned. I hope you enjoy reading my story and information. Please comment or ask any questions so we can develop more stories and information through your contribution.  Tugrul Sokmen - Travel Agent - Tour Guide in Kusadasi Ephesus Today we had a plan for the discovery to locate a Cave near Ephesus called Aslanli Yaren Cave. Given the lack of information about the cave, there were no precise instructions for the road. With the possibility of not finding it, we already needed some recent pictures of Kirazli village so we already needed to drive to Kirazli which is 12kms from Kusadasi and 15kms from Ephesus.  View from the Top of the Hill overlooking the Plains This particular location was actually one of the main Water Sources of Ancient Ephesus more than 2000 years ago. The longest aqueduct to Ephesus was 42 kms and it was starting from Degirmendere district between Kusadasi and Kirazli Village. Aslanli cave was supposed to be in between the Actual water spring and the village of Kirazli. The altitude is around 250 meters at this location so we drove a little high up and reached the Water Spring.  Degirmendere Valley in Kusadasi  It was already after noon, and me and my friend were getting a little hungry, and not knowing where to head exactly we thought it would be a nice idea to stop at a local diner right near the water springs.  Sultan Restaurant's stunning Location Along to way from Kusadasi to Kirazli village, there are some new eateries, diners and farm restaurants recently opened. This particular one was called Sultan Sofrasi and was built right into the rock hills and the landscape was spectacular.
On the way to the entrance of restaurant I two dogs started coming towards us and after realizing that we are harmless they became friends with us in seconds and saw a group of people looking like the family who owned the place, and asked if they are open and have some hot tea.  sultan restaurant kirazli kusadasi ephesus They greeted us so friendly and welcomed us in. I asked the proprietor if he knew where this Aslanli Cave was. I had asked it to some other locals of the village a while ago and no one had a clue. And this gentleman not looking so sure gave me some directions on the way to the village. I explained that my wife is experiencing some respiratory problems and allergic asthma recently so I said I would give it a try and find Aslanli cave which was supposedly good for certain health problems.  Fried Eggplants Patatoes, Peppers served with Yogurt After drinking our tea, we ordered some food me the mixed fried vegetables, and my friend ordered famous Turkish Manti (Ravioli) The food came fast, waiter was a very friendly and helpful young man named Samet.  Turkish MANTI (Ravioli) But I realized the homemade thick bread Samet brought to us was warmed and had a strange smell and it was probably going bad after a day or two. And some of my fried aubergines were cut so thick that they weren't cooked properly. And the flavors kind of not there compared to the same dish I had yesterday in Kusadasi downtown at a home-cook restaurant. That dish was something else. And the price here was also a little high which is normal given the stunning landscape, the location and lack of business potential. Anyways, at least we were warmed up and stomachs were full. We are ready to get going with our day of adventure.  So we hop in our van and drove around 2 miles before reaching Kirazli, took a sharp left turn to a mountain path, which splits to two sides after a few hundred yards,. One going up to the left was our first choice but seeing road condition with large pebbles we decided to stop and drove back to the junction where we parked the van started walking from the Easter path to the right.
 Private Tour Guide Tugrul Sokmen on Quest Once the Pine forest took over the vineyards, we saw couple of other mountain trails going to the West (left). But we didn't take any continuing our way to East side of the valley, finally seeing a hut but no signs of anybody present there. Then we had 200 yards more and saw beekeepers at work around the bee boxes. Not wanting to disturb the bees from a distance we asked if they knew any Caves around. Most beekeepers are mobile and they are not locals to the areas, so knowing this I reckoned they had no clue about a cave.
As I was walking I thought of Ephesus, because the City’s symbol was the Bee. You could have seen the Bee depictions minted on the city coins of Ephesus. It was probably symbolizing the pollination hence abundance and fertility. Even the name of Ephesus was derived from ‘Apasas’, ‘Api’ meaning Bee like ‘Abej’ in French and ‘Abeja’ in Spanish.  Amazon Warrior Relief from Temple of Hadrian Ephesus Turkey Apasas, or Apisas meant the Queen Bee referring to the Amazon Warrior Queen who colonized the Area around 4000 years ago. As we see these Amazon warriors depicted in the friezes of so called Temple of Hadrian in Ephesus. The ones in the museum are original relieves, the ones at the site are replicas.
 Artemis of Ephesus, Selcuk Museum Turkey Ancient beekeepers around Ephesus must have been like these two fellows. They must have used the same hidden valleys to get the best of their ancient honey. I made a little research about the Ancient traditions of Beekeeping in the Antiquity. https://www.ted.com/talks/zehan_zhou_beekeeping_the_evolution_and_future_of_an_ancient_art 10:26 So the Statues of Mother Goddess Artemis of Ephesus also had the Bee depictions on her belt and also on the skirts. I learned that there is a cave painting find from Spain that is as old as 9000 years. And in Jordan Valley of Israil there is a behive find from 3000 years ago. Behives made out of unbaked clay and straw were found. Honeycombs are perishable it is almost impossible to find but near Milano during an excavation of an Etruscan trade center, archaeologists found a 2500 years old charred honey comb. And analysis showed the there was a pollen from a grapevine in that honeycomb. From Ancient writers and philosophers Aristotle talked about beekeeping in detail also the Roman writers Pliny the Elder, Virgil are some of the ones who discussed honey, beekeeping on their books. In the Bible there are 4 mentions of the Bees in the Bible (Deuteronomy 1:44, Judges 14:8, Psalm 118:12, Isaiah 7:18) I also looked at the Honey production numbers in the world and it turns out Turkey with 8.2 million metric tons is the biggest producer in Europe, and the second biggest in Asia after China. And the third biggest in the World after China, Argentina. And there are 4.5 million beehives in Turkey according to a research made in 2005.
 Tomb Stone of Yaren Dede Kirazli Kusadasi But the high ground was lovely with open are not much trees, it was green grass, meadows and a Symbolic Tomb next to a Juniper tree. The tomb allegedly belong to YARAN Dede. Important village elders, clerics, religious heads mostly remembered for generations with such tombs in almost every village in Turkey.
This tradition must have been coming all the way from the Roman period because in the Ancient City of Ephesus, most of the monumental public structures such as fountains, library, war memorials were also either Family Tombs or Monumental Heroon Tombs of important political, military and social Icons. For example Fountain of Pollio, Memmius Monument, Trajan Fountain and even the Library of Celsus were some of the most important monumental tombs of Ephesus. During the private ephesus tours, these tombs are the most photographed structures.  At the Top of Yaren Tepe Hill The area was very peaceful, we enjoyed a nice break and enjoying sun warming our necks. I realized the mountain trail actually continues making a circle around the hill and probably merging with the main asphalt road between Kusadasi and Kirazli. Since we left the car on the other end of the mountain, we couldn't follow the trail, although we knew that we could have seen some nice scenery, maybe we leave to next time.  Path going down from Yaren Tepe Yes, it was a failure in terms of locating the Cave but still it was one good adventure out in nature with remarkably nice weather for a December. As we were walking down the same road, I was thinking about the Name written on the Tomb Stone 'YARAN' Dede. Because the word YARAN means PIERCING.
Or I was thinking they made a local twist or a mistake using the word YAREN which means FRIEND and the Cave was named after Aslanli or Yaren cave. So solving this mystery of words I thought to myself that the actual location of the cave mustn't be far from the Tomb. In my next adventure I am hoping to be more fortunate and finally will find this Yaren Cave. Stay tuned.. |
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