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00:00I'm traveling the world exploring secrets and wonders.
00:09This is really tight.
00:11So I asked my friends here if they could get me access off the beaten track.
00:16And 100% definitely got what I asked for.
00:21An adventure by land and sea to the most fascinating places.
00:26It is just extraordinary.
00:29Where I've been given special access to significant and surprising treasures.
00:35Some of the most remarkable artworks to survive from antiquity.
00:40Buried in ancient sites, extraordinary buildings and glorious works of art.
00:47I'm in search of the treasures that help to explain the story of us.
00:52Journey with me to discover how the past shapes our lives today.
00:58That's Turkey.
01:00And this gorgeous coastline runs down the Aegean and then the Mediterranean seas.
01:07Over there is Greece and the rest of Europe.
01:10Head south and you hit the Middle East and North Africa.
01:14If you travel inland you'll reach the Black Sea and Asia.
01:19So this is a strategically crucial highway.
01:26It's home to remarkable human stories.
01:29From the private lives of an eccentric dynasty
01:32to newly discovered secrets of a neglected civilisation.
01:36From Roman riots to the legend of the Trojan War.
01:42I'm exploring the treasures of Turkey in the Mediterranean.
02:03The coastline of Mediterranean Turkey bristles with history.
02:08It's rich with stories from ancient times
02:11and many of its secrets are still waiting to be uncovered.
02:25This treasure isn't a single place.
02:28It is a remarkable family with an enduring legacy.
02:34A dynasty whose women ruled as well as men
02:38and whose capital was this place.
02:41It's modern-day Bodrum, ancient Halicarnassus.
02:47The dynasty, the Hecatomnids, ruled over an area known as Caria in the 4th century BCE.
02:54The Carian people were great artists, soldiers and seafarers.
02:59They were smart and distinctive,
03:01so it's odd that they've pretty much been written out of the history books.
03:09Ah, hello. Thank you.
03:12Thank you so much. Great to be in Bodrum.
03:15Thank you. Bye.
03:17OK, so you've got to ask yourself, why?
03:20Why do people hear so little about the Carians?
03:23Well, it is partly because written sources are very scarce,
03:28but I've got to say, it is also just because I'm sure
03:31that there was prejudice amongst Western scholars
03:34who couldn't quite wrap their heads round them,
03:36who couldn't categorise them.
03:38They were a bit too exotic.
03:40They didn't know how to write.
03:42They weren't Greeks, they weren't Romans, they weren't even Persians.
03:46So I'm going to try to do what I can
03:50to help give the Carians the attention they deserve.
03:56My mission starts with an unexpected, last-minute call
04:00to say I'm being granted access to a really special place,
04:04the recently-discovered tomb of the head of the Carians,
04:08King Hecatomnus.
04:10The family reached the height of their power
04:13under Hecatomnus' son, Mausolus,
04:15but it was Hecatomnus who kick-started it all.
04:19The tomb isn't open to the public,
04:21so it's a huge privilege to be allowed inside.
04:25I don't know what to expect, so I am genuinely excited.
04:30It looks very promising.
04:40It's not very Indiana Jones, but this is how it's done.
04:46Come on. Come on.
04:51I'm going to have a look inside.
04:53I'm going to have a look inside.
04:55I'm going to have a look inside.
04:57This is... It's so sensitive
04:59that you have to come through an airlock, obviously, to get in.
05:28Oh, my God.
05:30Look at this.
05:32This is Hecatomnus.
05:35So, this is the man who founded the Hecatomnid dynasty.
05:40And this is his sarcophagus.
05:43This is where he was buried.
05:45That is so beautiful. Look at this.
05:49I mean, you never...
05:52..get to come into a tomb that hasn't been opened before.
05:58And looters got in here and took some of the gold and treasure,
06:04but they're the only people apart from the restorers who've been in,
06:08so this is an absolutely remarkable
06:12once-in-a-lifetime experience.
06:17I mean, this is...
06:18The Carians were very famous for the quality of their stone carving.
06:23And he's the big man,
06:25so he'd have used the absolute best in the business.
06:28Look how beautiful. Look how beautiful this is.
06:31Look at his...
06:32Fantastic features on his face.
06:35So, this is a real portrait, and I think...
06:37I'm just working out what I'm looking at here.
06:40So, this is a real portrait.
06:43I think... I'm just working out what I'm looking at here.
06:46So, OK, so this is a funerary banquet,
06:50so, you know, the idea is it's almost as if he's still alive,
06:54even though he's being buried inside,
06:56and they're mourning him with him present at his own funeral.
07:00These are his servants, and these must be his children.
07:03These are his children! Oh, my God!
07:06So, that's going to be little Mausolus or one of his brothers.
07:10So, I'm guessing his daughters are going to be over this side.
07:14Yeah, look, look, look.
07:16He's holding a little bird,
07:18which is often a symbol that appears in funerary scenes.
07:22But you'd normally get the children represented as grown-ups
07:26on the other side, so...
07:28I don't know, let's see if they're round here.
07:34Oh!
07:36Oh, my goodness, this is tight.
07:40OK.
07:49Oh, wow, look at this.
07:52It's a hunting scene, so here's Hecatomlas again,
07:55and he's hunting a lion. Oh, of course he's hunting a lion,
07:58cos that proves how omnipotent you are.
08:01Oh, this is just so incredible.
08:11OK.
08:13So, that's what you'd expect to find.
08:15Round here, oh, my goodness!
08:17So, these are the children, grown-up,
08:20so that would mean that this is Mausolus, Hecatomlas's son.
08:24I never thought I'd see his face like this.
08:31Mausolus and his wife Artemisia succeeded Hecatomlas.
08:36Together, they embarked on an ambitious building programme.
08:41The climax, an uber-elaborate royal tomb in central Halicarnassus.
08:50This was the high street of ancient Halicarnassus,
08:53and today it is a charming, if slightly unexpected,
08:57entrance to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
09:02The monument, a groundbreaking mixture of eastern and western art,
09:06was destroyed probably by an earthquake in medieval times.
09:10So, you have to try to imagine the mausoleum.
09:14It was 40 metres high
09:17and a kind of five-storey wedding cake creation.
09:21It was covered in sculptures of battle scenes
09:24and images of the royal family and, interestingly, a lot of Amazons.
09:29Just at the top, there was an entire Egyptian stepped pyramid
09:34and then above that, a four-horse chariot,
09:38driven almost certainly by Mausolus and Artemisia themselves.
09:43It was enormous.
09:49Mausolus might have come up with the idea for this monument,
09:52but at the time of his death in 353 BCE, it was unfinished.
09:58So, Artemisia took up the challenge and created a wonder.
10:09Now, here's the thing.
10:11Artemisia was Mausolus' wife and successor,
10:15and she was his sister,
10:18and these two had another brother, Adreus,
10:21and another sister, Ada, who were married too.
10:26Frankly, this is odd.
10:28So, what's going on?
10:31Is it that the Hecatomynids, as a new dynasty,
10:34are trying to make a mark, to be distinctive,
10:37to distinguish themselves from others,
10:40or is it just that they want to keep power really tight within the family?
10:45Either way, these sibling marriages really set them apart.
10:51Perhaps the most significant impact of their sibling marriages
10:56was that it promoted female power.
10:59Hecatomyd women ruled with their brother-husbands
11:03not just behind the scenes, but in public.
11:06When their spouses died, they weren't passed over for a younger male heir,
11:11and, what's more, they ruled with confidence.
11:16There's a great story about Artemisia.
11:20The island of Rhodes was controlled by Caria,
11:24but the Rhodians revolted and sent a fleet here
11:27to try to take Halicarnassus.
11:30Artemisia was having none of it,
11:33and she hid her fleet in a secret harbour and ordered them to attack.
11:38The Rhodians were surprised and completely overwhelmed,
11:42and the Carians boarded the Rhodian ships
11:45and then sailed straight back to the island of Rhodes.
11:48When they arrived, of course, the Rhodians thought
11:51that these were their countrymen rather than enemies,
11:54and they welcomed them in,
11:56and so Caria retook the subordinate island.
12:03After Artemisia's reign, the next Hecatomyd couple,
12:07her brother and sister, Adraeus and Ada, took control.
12:13When Adraeus died, Ada ruled alone for four years,
12:18but then she was exiled.
12:20Luckily for her, the most powerful man in the world at the time,
12:25Alexander the Great, rocked up and offered his allegiance.
12:29You get the sense the two of them really got on.
12:33Ada actually adopted Alexander, and she sent him sweet treats,
12:38and he made some bonds before he went into battle.
12:42Alexander successfully besieged Halicarnassus
12:46and reinstated Ada as queen.
12:51But that wasn't the end of her story.
12:56In 1989, archaeologists here in Bodrum
12:59made a truly remarkable discovery,
13:02an undisturbed tomb believed to be that of Ada herself.
13:08The finds are now in Bodrum Castle.
13:11The castle was built in the early 1400s
13:14on what's believed to be the original site of the Hecatomyd's palace.
13:19The stunning treasure unearthed in the excavation is displayed here,
13:25as are what are almost certainly the mortal remains of Ada herself.
13:33MUSIC PLAYS
13:45The Hecatomyd family are a treasure
13:48because they are remarkable in themselves,
13:51but also because they focus our attention
13:54on the neglected Carian civilisation.
13:57Their dynamism and determination forged new forms of culture,
14:02and they even gave us one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
14:07Plus, thanks to Mausolus, they gave the world a new word,
14:13mausoleum.
14:21My next stop to explore ancient civilisations
14:24is a stunning stretch of the Mediterranean coastline,
14:28now known as the Turquoise Coast or the Turkish Riviera.
14:34In antiquity, the coastline here, right inland to the Taurus Mountains,
14:39was home to a brilliant civilisation called the Lycians.
14:44Now, we hear about the Lycians in Homer as allies of Troy,
14:48but we also know that they were real.
14:51They had their own language and alphabet and beliefs
14:55and often lived in cities overlooking these seas.
14:59Now, new discoveries are revealing their secrets.
15:05By the second century BCE,
15:07the city of Patara was Lycia's capital city and primary seaport.
15:15For centuries, hills of sand covered not only the shoreline
15:19but also Patara itself,
15:21until, in the late 1980s, archaeologists began excavating.
15:26As the truckloads of sand were cleared away,
15:30this remarkable building was revealed.
15:38It is just blowing my mind, the fact that when I first came to Turkey,
15:43this place was completely covered in sand.
15:46I mean, no-one knew it was here.
15:48And yet, not only is it the most impressive building,
15:52it was also home to what one Enlightenment thinker described
15:56as the most perfect form of government.
16:04This was the Lycian League, a coalition of all the cities in Lycia,
16:09the first known democratic federation in history.
16:14The member cities of the League committed themselves
16:17to be governed by the Central Assembly that met here in this council chamber.
16:22Each city elected and sent one, two or three representatives,
16:27depending on its size.
16:29This proportional system of representatives was unique in ancient times.
16:37The president of the Lycian League, the Lyciarch, sat here,
16:42and all around him were citizens of cities
16:45eagerly representing their own interests.
16:48So the atmosphere here must have been absolutely electric.
16:52And in fact, this system was so successful,
16:56it directly inspired the men who drafted the American Constitution.
17:01And if you think about it,
17:03American chambers of Congress are shaped exactly like this.
17:09The federation survived right up until the 4th century.
17:18Now, before I leave Pitara,
17:20I've just got to mention one of the city's most celebrated sons.
17:25He was born here around 1,700 years ago,
17:28and he was a churchman called Nicholas of Myra.
17:32Now, Nicholas of Myra is arguably one of the most famous men in the world,
17:37and you might think that you haven't heard of him,
17:40but he was also called St Nicholas,
17:43a.k.a. Santa Claus, a.k.a. Father Christmas.
17:47Nicholas was born here, but he lived most of his life in another Lycian city
17:52around 50 miles east along the coast, a beautiful place called Myra.
18:01Ancient Myra, modern-day Demre, was another leading Lycian city.
18:08St Nicholas was bishop here in the 4th century.
18:12This church was the site of his original burial place.
18:20After his death, his story was painted up here on the walls,
18:24and we learned that his parents, who were very wealthy, died in a pandemic,
18:29so he inherited a huge amount of money, which he put to very good use.
18:33He donated to charitable works, he was just generally very kind,
18:38and he even paid one man
18:40so that his daughters didn't have to become prostitutes.
18:43So look up there. There he is.
18:45This is St Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa Claus,
18:48Noel Baba, as he's called here in Turkey,
18:51and he is wearing a red outfit, he's got a white beard,
18:54and he's got little white trimmings on his coat.
18:57Fantastic.
18:59St Nicholas made Myra famous, but I also want to search further back in time,
19:04to a period more shrouded in mystery.
19:07And for that, I've come to the archaeological site
19:11recently dubbed the Pompeii of Anatolia.
19:17Ancient Myra doesn't appear in real, solid historical sources
19:21until relatively late,
19:23so to find out more about the city and its people and its stories,
19:27we have to turn to archaeology,
19:29and there have been some brilliant recent archaeological discoveries here,
19:34and I know that two of the women working on the finds are here today.
19:42Hi, ladies, hi.
19:44They're archaeologists, Sema Tarlu and Beste Tome.
19:49Sema and Beste.
19:51Beste. Nice to meet you.
19:53How lovely to meet you.
19:55We have a team that found something very special here in the theatre.
19:59So what was it exactly? What did you find?
20:02100 intact figurines like these, actually.
20:06Oh, they're beautiful.
20:09They're so beautiful.
20:11I mean, honestly, where did you find them?
20:14We found middle of this era.
20:16So just right in the middle of the theatre?
20:19Yes. It's unusual. Why were they here?
20:22We think the people is around the ritual here,
20:25and after the ritual, they're thrown away.
20:28It's very exciting because it's like a jigsaw puzzle of history.
20:33Yes. Look at that.
20:35It's a lady.
20:37Lady and her kids.
20:39Fantastic. Do you know who this is?
20:41Heracles. Heracles.
20:43The colour's so beautiful, isn't it? Yes.
20:46Incredible. Incredible.
20:48Oh, look. Lovely hairstyle.
20:50Yes.
20:52It's so sweet. That baby is so adorable.
20:56And it's so lovely to see this because in history,
20:59often we hear about the kings and the queens and the powerful
21:03and the great and the good and the very rich,
21:06but it feels as though some of these are ordinary people.
21:09We can see and we can understand the ancient dresses, faces.
21:17The garments are red and blue, pink.
21:20Amazing. They're lovely.
21:23This is a very special collection.
21:25When we found them, we were so excited.
21:28Our team is hugging each other happily, actually.
21:31And we began to cry.
21:33Yeah, nearly.
21:35I can hear the emotion in your voice.
21:38I love them.
21:40It's making you cry.
21:42That's so sweet.
21:45It feels as though this has changed your life a bit.
21:48Yes. Yes.
21:50Incredible. What a privilege to see them.
21:53Thank you. Teşekkürler. Teşekkür.
21:57The figurines offer a wonderful glimpse
22:00into the world of the people of ancient Myra,
22:04and they're not the site's only portal to the past.
22:08There's something up here I haven't shown you yet.
22:15MUSIC
22:25These extraordinary structures are tombs,
22:29sculpted into the rock face mostly in the 4th century BCE.
22:39Some of these tombs are built to look like temples,
22:42but a lot of them represent homes,
22:44just like the houses that the Lycians would have lived in.
22:48And I don't know if you can see those cylinders.
22:51There's a kind of line of them there,
22:53and those are meant to be logs that were used in house construction
22:57and actually are still used in traditional houses here today.
23:00And there are little traces of blue and red and yellow and paint,
23:04so we know that originally these would have been a riot of colour.
23:09So it's kind of gorgeous, isn't it?
23:11Because it's really physically
23:13where the dead were being made to feel at home.
23:21Some tombs are accessible to the public,
23:24but off the beaten track,
23:26access is strictly only with special permission
23:30for academic research, including one tomb,
23:33which is particularly striking.
23:37I've been warned it's a scramble to reach.
23:44The rock here is just honeycombed with these tombs,
23:48some of them slightly more inaccessible than others,
23:51and that was quite some climb, but worth it,
23:55because what's here is wonderful.
23:58So inside the tomb, this is the family itself,
24:02and on the outside here you've got friends and guests,
24:06there's even a kind of mother holding a little child's hand.
24:10And, you know, I was talking about the colours that they used,
24:14you can see the remnants of the original paint,
24:17that's red and blue, over 2,000 years old.
24:22This is wonderful, isn't it?
24:28The Lycian lands and their culture are a treasure
24:31not just because of their incredible, epic natural beauty,
24:36but also because they offer us intimate clues
24:39to the lives of women and men from the distant past.
24:57This part of the Mediterranean coast
24:59is a global meeting place of civilisations and cultures,
25:03and it's home to one of the most famous ancient cities in the world.
25:10This treasure is an epic story and an enduring mystery,
25:15the world of Troy.
25:18I've been obsessed with the heroines and heroes
25:21of the Trojan War for decades, and it is a great tale,
25:25but it's dogged with controversy.
25:28Is the Trojan War myth, or is it history?
25:32I'm going to head inland to try to unwrap the riddle of Troy.
25:40The story of the Trojan War,
25:42of how a mighty fleet of Achaean Greeks sailed across this sea
25:46and attacked the city of Troy, laying siege to it for 10 years,
25:50was told almost 3,000 years ago by the Greek poet Homer.
25:55It's a brilliant, dramatic account.
25:58It plays out at a strategically crucial location,
26:01what's now the continental boundary of Europe and Asia.
26:07The ancient Greeks and Romans really believed the story,
26:11but in later centuries, even the location of Troy was unknown,
26:15suggesting the tale might be just a myth.
26:19Then, in the 19th century, amateur archaeologists,
26:23including those from Homer,
26:25identified this spot as the possible site of Troy.
26:32I just adore this place.
26:35I first came here as a teenager,
26:38and the whole site is like a giant puzzle of fragments
26:42that you have to try and piece together,
26:45like adding chapters together in a great book.
26:49The first excavations were led in the 1870s by Heinrich Schliemann.
26:54They grabbed headlines, unearthing an ancient settlement,
26:59now accepted as Troy, and a spectacular cache of treasure.
27:04The treasure was from too early in Troy's history
27:07to be directly linked to Homer's tales,
27:10but it confirmed the importance and wealth of the city.
27:15Professor Rustem Aslan, the current director of the excavations,
27:19is going to show me where the treasure was found.
27:22So, just before we go in, what is all this pottery?
27:26There is a handmade pottery,
27:28and the first time we have a well-made pottery.
27:31Yes. Plates.
27:33Yeah, so made on a potter's wheel, so it's beautifully even.
27:36That means 2,500 years BC.
27:39So that's 4,500 years old? Yes.
27:42OK. We can go down.
27:44Professor Aslan, this is incredible.
27:46It feels quite dangerous now. Yes, it's dangerous, yes.
27:49A little bit dangerous. Be careful.
27:51I will, I will, yeah.
27:53Because everywhere there is trenches.
27:56So this is where Schliemann excavated? Yes.
27:58We are now inside of the early Troy city gate,
28:02where he discovered the treasure.
28:06I mean, I've just got to pause for a moment,
28:09because that's extremely exciting for me.
28:11So where we are now, so this is the citadel of Troy,
28:15dating back to around 2,500 BC.
28:18Around 2,500 BC.
28:20I can see there is archaeology.
28:22Yes, come with me. I can show it to you here.
28:29If you look here,
28:32it's...
28:34Then after the surface, you can see the burnt layers
28:38and some mud-brick structure.
28:40So this, it's redder, this soil? Yes.
28:43The mud-brick, after the fire, is getting red colour.
28:49Are we looking at a destruction layer? Yes.
28:52So this, what we're looking at, this is the city of the treasure,
28:56and this is the fire that would have destroyed that culture?
28:59Yes, exactly.
29:01Incredible.
29:03You love working here, don't you?
29:05Yes, since over 30 years, I came here as a student.
29:09The magic of the poetry, the power of the poetry,
29:13I think, is to make Troy
29:17one of the most important places in history.
29:20I feel every morning the Homeric landscape
29:26is similar with the real landscape around Troy.
29:31Amazing. So you're an archaeologist and a scientist,
29:34but you can feel, it's almost like the aura of Homer is in the landscape.
29:38Yes, of course, all the time.
29:40So exciting.
29:44Much of the treasure found at Troy was smuggled out of the country,
29:48but recently some of the finds have been returned
29:52and are now in the Troy Museum.
29:56You just have to look at these.
29:59So the jewellery in this case is over 4,500 years old.
30:06And if that weren't staggering enough in and of itself,
30:10the workmanship is so fine, it's so exquisite.
30:15I think probably my favourite pieces are these amazing earrings,
30:19which have a kind of shower of leaves tumbling down.
30:24And it is brilliant being so close to them
30:27because it just short-circuits you to a connection
30:31to those early Bronze Age ancestors of Homer's Trojans.
30:36And I have to say this, I love wearing gold earrings,
30:40and isn't it fantastic that the women and the men
30:44of this time and place in prehistory
30:47loved wearing this kind of jewellery too?
30:53Historians agree that if there was a Trojan War,
30:56it almost certainly took place in the late Bronze Age,
30:59probably around 1200 BCE,
31:02and most of what you see on the site of Troy today
31:05dates to that time.
31:07And there is mounting evidence that the events described by Homer
31:12do indeed have their roots in reality.
31:17The truth is we just don't know
31:20whether a single Trojan War happened out there on the plains of Troy.
31:25But tablets from the time describe clashes
31:29between Greeks and local Anatolians here in what is now Turkey.
31:34If you look at the journeys that Homer describes in his poetry,
31:38then these match almost exactly Bronze Age trading routes.
31:42And one of the princes of Troy, Prince Hector,
31:45is described as a tamer of horses,
31:47and archaeologists have found really huge numbers of horse bones here.
31:52So it's all very tantalising,
31:55but it does suggest that there are kernels of truth
31:59and a foundation of history to those fantastic tales.
32:05More clues have emerged after years of excavation.
32:09These huge blocks of limestone
32:12represent the 550 metres worth of walls that originally surrounded the city.
32:20In Homer, the walls of the city are described as sloping,
32:24and indeed they do slope, but not only that,
32:27originally there was a mud-brick structure on top,
32:31so these would have stretched 10 metres high.
32:34So I am certain that I'm standing here
32:38at the foot of Homer's well, walls of Troy.
32:50There's one more place I want to visit,
32:53a four-mile journey from the mainland,
32:56the Turkish island of Buzjada, known in antiquity as Tenedos.
33:09I've never actually made it here before,
33:13but this island crops up loads in ancient sources,
33:17and it plays a really crucial role in the drama of the Trojan War,
33:21and in particular in the story of the Trojan Horse,
33:24so it is fantastic to finally be getting here.
33:31Today, Buzjada is an intoxicating mix of culture from both east and west.
33:38It's also famous now, as it was back in antiquity, for its wine.
33:45In a final plot twist, the Achaean Greek fleet came here
33:49as the conflict was reaching its climax.
33:54You'll probably remember the story of the Trojan Horse.
33:58When the Greeks built a giant wooden horse
34:02and left it outside the gates of Troy
34:05with a swat team of Greek soldiers hidden inside,
34:09waiting for their chance to trick their way into the city.
34:13Well, the poets and the myth-makers tell us
34:16that the rest of the Greek army, with their ships,
34:19waited here for the signal to attack.
34:22And coming here, it is just brilliant
34:25because this bay is still full of ships
34:28actually waiting for the right winds to sail up the Dardanelles.
34:32This is somewhere where the landscape makes myth real.
34:40In the story, the final assault the Greek fleet launched from here on Troy
34:46was a success.
34:48After ten years, the Trojan War was over.
34:52But the legend lives on.
34:55It is fascinating how obsessed we continue to be
35:00with these stories of Troy.
35:03Just last year, there was a news story
35:06that the Trojan Horse itself had been discovered
35:10at the site of Troy in the form of 15-metre-long planks and beams.
35:16Now, that actually turned out to be a hoax,
35:19but it just shows us how driven we still are
35:22to try to find the physical evidence of these epic tales.
35:30The world of Troy is a treasure
35:32because of the enduring power of the story
35:35and the fascinating modern discoveries that suggest it's rooted in reality.
35:40It's a world where archaeology and ancient poetry come together
35:45to paint a picture of the past.
35:54This part of the Turkish Aegean coast is packed with ancient wonders.
35:59My final treasure was once one of the greatest cities in the Roman Empire.
36:06This place is truly exceptional.
36:08For thousands of years, it's been a magnet for travellers
36:12and today it's one of the most spectacular archaeological wonders on Earth.
36:18Welcome to Ephesus.
36:24The whole city is a World Heritage Site.
36:28Ephesus had existed for at least 6,000 years
36:32and its port became a central hub for travellers between east and west.
36:38Ancient Ephesus was exciting and energetic and impressive.
36:42At its height, over 200,000 people lived here.
36:46Traders and tourists and pilgrims made their way to the port
36:50and then up into the city,
36:52not to mention the rich and famous of the ancient world,
36:55so Alexander the Great and those doomed lovers,
36:59Antony and Cleopatra, and all the rest.
37:03Ephesus's early draw was as a place of pilgrimage.
37:07From the 6th century BCE,
37:09it was home to another of the seven wonders of the ancient world,
37:13the Temple of Artemis.
37:20The temple was built in the 7th century BCE
37:23and was the seat of the Archbishop of Athens.
37:27The Temple of Artemis.
37:35This street was built as a grand processional highway
37:39right to the temple.
37:41Now, sadly, very little survives of the temple itself,
37:45but Artemis wasn't just confined to the sanctuary,
37:48she pervaded this whole city
37:51and some rather wonderful discoveries have been made here
37:55in the place of the goddess herself.
38:02The goddess that was excavated right in the governmental heart of Ephesus
38:06is definitely a creature of the East.
38:15Just look at her.
38:18You really do feel as though you're in the presence of a goddess.
38:23She is wild, isn't she?
38:26Of course, the first thing you notice
38:28are these strange protuberances around her chest,
38:32and the truth is we just don't know what they are.
38:34We don't know whether they're breasts or bull's testicles
38:38or eggs or sacks of honey,
38:41but whatever they are,
38:43they tell us that Artemis had dominion over nature
38:46and the natural world,
38:49and over the supernatural world too.
38:52These sphinxes up here and these strange monsters,
38:57you can absolutely understand
39:00why people would travel for days and for miles
39:05just to be in the presence of this ferocious, fecund power.
39:11The temple of Artemis made Ephesus famous,
39:15but it was later, under the Roman Empire,
39:18as a thriving port and capital of the province of Asia,
39:22that the city became mega-rich.
39:26Much of what you see here today
39:28is the result of a Roman building boom in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
39:32Streets were paved with marble,
39:36and magnificent new public buildings,
39:38temples, fountains, gateways,
39:41a concert hall and baths, were constructed.
39:45In fact, Ephesus was packed with treasures.
39:49This is probably the most famous.
39:51This is the Library of Chalcis, but this wasn't just a library.
39:55This was a tomb in honour of a man called Chalcis,
39:59with a public library,
40:01The library, one of the most impressive buildings in the empire,
40:05could hold 12,000 scrolls
40:08and was full of architectural wizardry,
40:10like temperature and humidity controls.
40:17There were also new luxury private homes.
40:21Remarkably, this city centre apartment complex
40:25was built in the 12th century.
40:28Remarkably, this city centre apartment complex survives.
40:37Ongoing restoration work is giving us a rare glimpse
40:40into the domestic world of Ephesus's wealthy elite.
40:47It's just fantastic, cos every time I come here,
40:49they've excavated or pieced together a bit more.
40:53This was a place of real comfort.
40:56Hot and cold water, underfloor heating and high-end decor.
41:08Coming here, you just feel so close to the women and men of Ephesus
41:14who used their wealth to decorate their beautiful homes in this way.
41:20But it is just fabulous, isn't it?
41:23And do you know what? Artemis even has a presence here,
41:26because excavators, when they were working recently,
41:29discovered a gorgeous statue of the goddess in this very house.
41:38But change was coming.
41:43One of the most famous visitors was Christian evangelist Paul.
41:49Paul of Tarsus, later known as St Paul.
41:55In the mid-first century, he preached in the local synagogue here
41:59and then more widely to the Ephesian population.
42:07From Paul's point of view, Ephesus, which was a cosmopolitan city
42:11and a hub for travellers,
42:13was the ideal place to try to spread the word about Jesus.
42:18But things didn't quite go according to plan.
42:24For most people living here at the time,
42:26Paul's new message was unsettling and unwelcome,
42:30as an account in the Bible makes clear.
42:34According to the Acts of the Apostles, a silversmith called Demetrius,
42:39who made his living here by selling miniature souvenirs
42:43of the Temple of Artemis, stirred up his fellow traders
42:47believing that Paul's radical teaching would not only put them out of business
42:52but also threaten the temple and the goddess herself.
42:59Soon the city was in uproar with crowds of people in the streets.
43:04They converged here on the theatre.
43:08It was a dramatic setting.
43:10This was one of the largest theatres in the ancient world
43:13with an astonishing capacity of 24,000.
43:18It must have been a highly charged moment.
43:21Paul wanted to come to address the crowd,
43:24but they were working themselves up into a blind frenzy.
43:28Local officials intervened to try to keep the peace,
43:32telling the Ephesians that this new cult would be no threat to Artemis.
43:37But the truth was, the writing was on the wall for the old gods.
43:44BANG
43:49Despite the initial resistance, the new Christian religion flourished in Ephesus.
43:57The city had a special connection to Jesus's mother Mary,
44:01who was said to have spent her final years nearby,
44:04and it was here in Ephesus that she received her greatest honour.
44:10It seems that this is the first church in the world to be dedicated to Mary.
44:17And not only that, but right here at the Council of Ephesus in the 5th century,
44:23Mary was declared Theotokos, the mother of God.
44:29Now, that is quite some status for a woman to hold.
44:34And I think it is no coincidence that Mary was honoured in this way here,
44:39because this is the place that for centuries had adored a strong virgin character
44:45in the form of Artemis the goddess.
44:48And just as with Artemis, pilgrims still come here to honour Mary.
44:57Ephesus is a dynamic treasure, a destination for centuries
45:02for travellers and traders and scholars and merchants and pilgrims,
45:08a carnival of humanity, buying and selling and praying and making
45:14and creating the wonders that are here, and surely appreciating them too.
45:27Exploring the treasures of Mediterranean Turkey has been a delight and an epic journey.
45:35A reminder that as a species, we create and seek out stories wherever and whenever we live,
45:44from world-famous legends to wonders of the world and world-class discoveries.
45:51The past isn't just a repository of history and myth,
45:55it's an inspiration for the narratives of our own lives.
46:21Transcription by ESO. Translation by —