Where past comes alive

Kalpana Bindu 

For tourists, Turkey generally invokes images of blue mosque, hot air balloons at Cappadocia, or the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale. Quite often, what fails to find space on their itinerary is the province of Izmir. On the coast of the Aegean sea, it's home to some of the regal ancient structures and heritage of the Byzantine Greek era even as it shares the modern cosmopolitan culture with Europe. 

As we reached Izmir, we could observe the imprints of ancient history visible in every lane and bylane of the city. Hidden among the buildings and residential complexes was a 7th century fortification wall of the ancient Smyrna city. Juxtaposed within the expanse of the Agean sea, high rise buildings and mountains was an excavation site of ancient Agora, frequented mostly by students and professors of archeology and history.

From Bayrakli, we took a train towards the north of Izmir to the ancient Acropolis of Pergamon in Bergama, which was the capital city during the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Thereafter, a bus ride through the rustic Turkish countryside and a short 20-minute taxi ride took us to the promontory, leaving us enraptured with the panoramic view of Bergama city below. 

At the tabletop of the hill, the relics of ‘Gate of Eumenes’ exported us to the Hellenistic era. The majestic and towering Trajaneum, a temple of Roman Emperor Trajan, was the most impressive site. Thanks to the restoration work undertaken in the year 1976, the pillars of this Greek style temple built during the 1st and 2nd century BCE have been reconstructed.

From the edge of the hill near Trajaneum, we saw the 10,000-seat amphitheatre and were intrigued by its sheer steepness and numerous stairs. While walking down the amphitheatre, we decided to search for the second-largest ancient Greek library which, according to a legend, housed 200,000 volumes of manuscripts, but to date the ruins have not revealed the secret of its location. Although our short search did not yield any result, we hope some travelers would discover its location in times to come. 

Our last stop was the Asclepeion, a thriving healing center of the Roman era, established in 4th century BCE. The site had a few intact structures, such as the healing spring, underground passageway, remains of the temple of Asclepius and a circular treatment center. Our journey to Bergama ended on a sweet note with a dessert called Lor, which seemed like a holy alliance between roshogulla and gulabjamun, suggesting some traditional and cultural exchange between India and Turkey.  

The next morning, as we boarded a tour bus to visit the famous Greco-Roman Metropolis of Ephesus in the south of Izmir, serendipity was at play again. During our breakfast stopover, we were served Gözleme that turned out to be a variant of our very own aloo ka parantha, with an addition of cheese in the stuffing. 

While entering through the south gate of Ephesus, our tour guide informed that despite decades of excavation, only 15 per cent of the vast Ephesus city had been unearthed to date. Walking down the broad boulevards of the Curetes street, we reached the Hercules gate. Dedicated to Greek hero Hercules, the gate, supposedly built in the 4th century BCE, had the reliefs depicting Heracles with the skin of the Nemean lion. To the south of the Curetes street was the ostentatious temple of Hadrain, dedicated to goddess Artemis and Emperor Hadrain with its intricately carved reliefs of Tyche, goddess of victory and snakehead Medusa. 

Moving down the hill, there was a mesmerizing view of the Library of Celsus, one of the few remaining structures with Greek influence on Roman architecture and the most iconized structures of Ephesus. Constructed in honor of Roman Senator Julius Celsus, the library during its heyday had 12,000 scrolls and was the third richest library in ancient times.

To our utter surprise, while we were engrossed looking at the large Greek sculptures, our guide led us to the side wall and showed us a small carving which seemed like an Indian goddess with six hands and three faces. He informed us that this small figure was curved by Indian merchants who had visited Ephesus during the Roman era.

On our way back to Bayrakali, while we were recollecting the memories of our visit to the two UNESCO World Heritage sites, we felt that the trip was too short to understand the vastness of those places and the greatness of the culture that had created these cities.