The ancient city of Ephesus is the subject of this photographic series. Ephesus was accidentally discovered in 1863 by J. Wood (an engineer) while he was searching for the lost Temple of Artemis (one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World); is this serendipity at its finest or what?

Founded by the Greeks in the 11th Century BC, Ephesus was the center of commerce (i.e. power) and culture. After Ephesus was conquered by the Romans in the 2nd Century BC it was rebuilt and became the capital of Rome in Asia; the city was eventually ruined by fire, earthquakes, covered over with silt, and forgotten/lost until Mr. Wood’s discovery.

IMPORTANT, please note ... whenever you visit a Pbase gallery for the first time, or if you have clicked on a size smaller than "original size" while visiting this or any other Pbase gallery, please be sure to click on "original" size, otherwise you will be presented with a low quality JPEG as versus the high quality JPEG (the size doesn't change, only the quality level of the JPEG compression); you only have to do this once, on the very first picture you look at.

Alternatively, on the very first picture you can add "/original" to the URL in the address bar and hit "refresh" or "go" as the case may be; again, you only have to do this once (on the very first picture). This "/original to the URL" approach is the sure-fire/no-mistake/best way to ensure you will see the highest quality JPEG presentation.