--- Hello everyone!!! I hope you are well or are trying to be well. I realised that I haven't been able to write a travel post for a while because of the intensity and tiredness and that's why I'm here. Today we are going to the ancient city of Ephesus and the Seven Sleepers with you and to be honest, I have to admit that I'm a little scared because of the size of the ancient city because there are so many things to tell and I have very little time to write this post.  --- Our first stop, 7 Sleepers, is located at the foot of the mountain near the ancient city of Ephesus. Normally, it is not very difficult to get here, but we had a hard time getting there. Although it was an asphalt road, the road was quite broken and it was difficult for big buses. --- Nevertheless, our head guide gave us information about the 7 Sleepers on the way. He told us about 7 young people and a dog, whose names I cannot remember at the moment, whose names are mentioned differently in both Islamic and Christian history. --- While it is accepted by Muslims that Ashab-ı Kehf Cave is the cave in Tarsus or Aphsin today, it is adopted by Christians as this place in Ephesus. According to the legend, 7 young people living in 250 BC refused to offer their offerings to the emperor of their time. In response, they were threatened with death and took refuge in a cave. The ruler orders a stone wall to be built in front of this cave. After the construction of this wall, the young people fall into a long sleep without realising it, and when they wake up, one of them goes to the city to buy bread. When he gives the old money to a bakery, he realises that the emperor of the period was Theodosius II, not Decius, and that he and his friends had slept not only for one night but for 200 years. --- When they went back to the cave and told their friends about this situation, the 7 young people fell asleep again and never woke up ever since. It is thought that after the death of these seven young people, a big funeral ceremony was held and then a church was built on these graves. This church is the current Church of the 7 Sleepers. In the section connected to Ephesus from here, a church and many graves were found during excavations. When the inscriptions written on the walls of the church to address the 7 Sleepers were realised, it became clear that this church was the subject of legends. Therefore, these tombs are very important for both the Christian and Islamic world. You can find more detailed information on the informative boards I have added above, but in general, this is the legend and I tried to explain it to you as briefly as I could. ---  --- Most of the sections were closed for security purposes, but fortunately the iron railings were wide and I could see enough inside. I even came across a wishing tree after a very short walk. I was also lucky enough to enter the Virgin Mary's house, but since it is forbidden to take any photos inside, I will not be able to share your photos, but you can see the other information boards in the vicinity and the very dense greenery below.  --- After this, we slowly started to reach the ancient city of Ephesus. Although I didn't think it was a long journey, when I looked at the photos later, I had to admit that it was actually a long journey. Of course, in order to make the walking path inside the city a little more bearable, we went down from the top to the bottom. Normally the route is from bottom to top and we had to thank our head guide for that.  --- Although we didn't feel it too much going downwards, when I think about it, going upwards could be really challenging. Maybe @incublus, who has visited this place before, can understand this problem better.  --- On this road we passed through sections where many historical artefacts were found and excavations were carried out. I inevitably thought about the difficulties of these excavations because it was quite hot even in the middle of winter when we were there. --- We even came across the statue of the famous Nike. I have seen this statue so many times from photographs throughout my university life that it is natural for me to say that it is now engraved in my brain. It is also a source of happiness for me to be able to see this statue with my own eyes, which I have seen from photographs for years.  --- Passing by the famous Heracles' gate was a completely different experience for me. At some point, knowing that this gate actually prevented the passage of cars into the city made me think that Heracles' mission was still not over. I realise that this thought is a bit fantastical, but isn't it free to dream? --- In short, I think it would not be absurd to say that the ancient city of Ephesus was a world of dreams for me. When I continued to move forward again, I came across the Temple of Hadrianus, which I mentioned to you before, I don't remember which post it was. This temple, donated by Antoninus Sabinus, not only honoured Hadrianus but also placed the statues of the emperors who came after Hadrianus in the following periods. --- After the gate of Heracles, when we proceeded into the city, we came across a museum. This museum consisted of hillside houses and the mosaics inside these houses. At the entrance of these houses, we had to pay a separate fee and we waited for a long time because there was no entrance to this museum in the written document given to us by the Ministry of Tourism, but our chief guide made a small gesture and let us in. I must say that the fee was quite high. Also, unfortunately the museum card is not valid here. At least it was not valid when I was there. --- With my apologies, I will add a few photos of this part one after the other because otherwise it is not possible for me to share these photos with you. In addition, in order to see this part better, I shot a small video for myself and I am adding it here. ---  --- ---  --- When you stepped out of the building of these hillside houses, you could see the famous library, which I am adding here. Afterwards, we went to the library without wasting any time and our guide gave us some time there. I took a lot of photos, but I have to admit that the photos I took are not that good, but at the same time I took a video while I was resting a little bit in that part and examining the library. I am adding that video here.  --- When I had a little more time, I took more photos with my friends. I even helped a lot of people to take photos, I'm not a professional but I don't think I'm bad either. Besides, it's not so important for me as long as my friends like the photos.  --- Before I dive into the ancient history of the library of Ephesus, there is one more little thing I would like to share with you. You will probably see the first advertisement in history. The footprint you see in the photo below was leading you to a brothel. You can tell whether it is a brothel or not by the small heart sign I have marked on the upper left side of the footprint. It is also important to remember that the ancient Greek and Roman periods were quite open in terms of sexuality. That's why this advertisement was not surprising to me, but it is very valuable because it is one of the first advertisements. I don't think I need to tell you the meaning of the other marks, so let's start with the history and features of the library.  --- Although I called you the Library of Ephesus until now, the name of this library is actually the Library of Celsus. At the same time, the only task of this library was not to store books. It was built by his son as the tomb monument of Celsius, the governor of Ephesus, who lived in the early 100s. The sarcophagus of the governor is on the west side of the library. This façade was restored at a later date than the other parts of the library, and in that part of the library there are items and rolls of books stored in niches in the walls.  --- In addition, the books in that section were not the only books in this library. When the size of the library was considered and certain calculations were made, it was said in an article I read that more than 14,000 books could have been kept in this library. Actually, how easy it is to say, isn't it? 14,000 books. The fact that this library has two floors reflects the characteristics of its period. When I read the later studies, I learnt that this library was not two-storeyed, but three-storeyed, but I could not find any detailed information about the third floor.  --- All I found was that the reading room burnt down during earthquakes around the 2nd or 3rd century and that the facade was destroyed by other earthquakes in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, there is no information about anything that was destroyed or burnt down before this period. According to the researches, manuscripts and rare books were kept on the second and third floors. Apart from this section, there are two more sections I want to tell you about and I promise that I will finish my article after these two sections. The first of these two sections is the Temple of Artemis. As is known, the Temple of Artemis is the world's first temple made of marble. The history of this temple dating back to the 6th and 7th centuries BC actually proves to us that Ephesus was built layer by layer over time. I would like to talk a little about the detailed features of the temple.  --- The works of the most famous and talented sculptors of the period were used in this temple. Bronze sculptures were frequently encountered. In addition, the temple faces west like the other temples of Artemis. The temple was used both as a market place and as a religious institution, and it is possible to understand this from the ruins in the surrounding area. Unfortunately, we could not get close enough, but we were able to access the theatre, which was quite large. --- The last building I would like to mention is the **Odeon**. As is known, Ephesus had a two-chamber administration. One of them was the advisory council and this council had a capacity of 1400 people. These meetings, which were held in a covered area, were also used as a concert venue from time to time. For this reason, this building was also called Bouleterion.  --- Being on the steps of this building was quite a different experience. Our head guide made us all sit on the steps and we talked about the issues of Türkiye that were on the agenda at the time, it was quite a strange feeling. The people who talked to me a bit, @pravesh0, @incublus, @ph1102 and @foxkoit, know a bit about how extreme ideas can be.  --- Finally, I visited the Uğur Mumcu monument at one end of the ancient city of Ephesus. I will not mention this key because I do not want to touch too much on the history of modern Turkey, but I want you to know that the monument is a valuable one for me, my Turkish friends will understand me better.  --- Yes, that's all from me for today. The ancient city of Ephesus is very valuable for me, just like the ancient cities I have mentioned before and will talk about in the future. I have no idea what I will talk about in the next chapter. I didn't go a little further and look at the photos. I want it to be a surprise for me too, so see you for now. Take care of yourself, stay with health and love and please remember that; ***You are the only one of you.*** 

Herkese merhabaaaa!!! Umarım iyisinizdir ya da iyi olmaya çalışıyorsunuzdur. Yoğunluk ve yorgunluktan dolayı bir süredir gezi yazısı yazamadığımı fark ettim ve bunun için buradayım. Bugün sizlerle Efes Antik Kenti'ne ve Yedi Uyurlar’a gidiyoruz ve açıkçası antik kentin büyüklüğünden dolayı biraz korktuğumu kabul etmeliyim çünkü çok fazla anlatılacak şey ve çok az zamanım var bu yazıyı yazabilmek için.  --- ilk durağımız olan 7 Uyurlar, Efes Antik Kenti’nin yakınlarında bulunan dağın eteklerinde bulunmakta. Normalde buraya ulaşım çok zor değil fakat biz gelirken zorlandık. Asfalt yol olmasına rağmen yol oldukça bozuktu ve büyük otobüsler için zorluydu. --- Buna rağmen baş rehberimiz bize yolda ilerlerken 7 Uyurlar hakkında bilgi verdi. Şu anda isimlerini hatırlayamadığım,