If, 2 days ago, I had said to Donna: "I want to rent an apartment in Smyrna" she would have assumed that I hit my head. Our beautiful home near Waleska Ga has no disadvantages compared with an apartment in Smyrna Georgia. Ah, but Smyrna, Turkey. Known - as we discovered last night - as Izmir, Smyrna has Greek and Roman ruins equalled in my experience only by Rome and Ephesus. We came to Izmir because the train tracks between Bucharest and Istajnbul were under construction. So, by flying, we had 2 days to "kill" and so I thought of Ephesus. And Izmir is the giant city nearby and with an airport. So this morning we set out to find the Roman agora. We walked by - unimpressed. So we headed for the open market but discovered it was 6 miles away. We turned around to return to our hotel and, in a few minutes, there - suddenly - was THE Agora! We had seen the backside wall and - like everywhere in our journey east of Prague - there are no signs. We explored the main portico. About 600' x 200', we walked through the huge basement (much is still not excavated) and along the column-lined 1st floor. The top of the columns was the 1st floor ceiling and there was an equally large and tall 2nd floor (now gone) with identical columns and a huge roof. Photos.
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