Parts of Turkey were conquered by the Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, the Ottomans and many others. I tried to prepare myself for Turkey and Greece by reviewing my ancient history, but I never paid attention to the classics in college so there was a lot to catch up on. It doesn’t help to know that the same gods worshipped by both Romans and Greeks had different names. I watched the Netflix series, “Troy”, to review the story of the Trojan war, which went on for 10 years back around the 12th century BC, over a Trojan Greek stealing a Spartan Greek king’s wife named Helen. The Spartans tricked the Trojans with a gift horse preloaded with soldiers who attacked the city while the Trojans weren’t paying attention.

Troy was apparently rebuilt and settled 9 times starting back in the hunter gatherer days. Many archaeologists have excavated layers of civilizations over the years to uncover rich historical artifacts.

Ephesus was famous for having been settled by both Greeks and Roman, so the remains are an interesting mix of both cultures. There was also an earthquake that moved the Aegean bay to a different location so there’s a landlocked lighthouse up on a hillside now apropos of nothing.

The area has Christian heritage in that St. Paul, St. John the evangelist and Mary, mother of Jesus all spent years there as well. It’s always so impressive to think I am walking on the same ground that was traveled by historical figures of such importance.

Our Turkish guide had a great sense of humor and had to show us the Roman latrines, which was pretty entertaining.