Fear In A Handful of Dust – The Invisible Harbor of Ephesus (Istanbul & Everything After #38)

The most important place in the life and death of Ephesus cannot be seen nor visited. Millions of visitors who come to see the ruins of Ephesus have no idea what they are missing. I did not do any better in this regard. I was too busy snapping photos of the magnificent Library of Celsus, staring in awe at the massive theater, and jockeying for position with other tourists for elbow space along the Arcadian Way. It was easy to get caught up in the crowds scurrying from one set of ruins to another while gaining little more than a series of fantastic impressions. Viewing the ruins of Ephesus was like looking at a cubist painting, an entire world in fragments. A semi-coherent portrayal of the past. The viewer had to use their imagination to fill in the gaps. And for everything that could be seen, there was so much more missing. That included the old harbor of Ephesus. Nothing else in Ephesus could match its importance or its absence.

Natural Acts – Environmental Calamities

Environmental concerns are headline news in the 21st century. Global warming, climate change, the loss of biological diversity, extinction events, pick your poison. Mother nature is striking back with a vengeance. Apocalyptic predictions of a dying planet are all the rage. Extreme weather events get round the clock news coverage. Climate change has been turned into clickbait by the media. The worse the weather event, the better. There is nothing like hurricanes, tornadoes, flash floods, and searing heat waves to capture the public interest. All this well publicized calamity is enough to make one believe that environmental problems produce death and devastation in a matter of minutes.

The focus on catastrophe has been talked about so much and at such lengths that many tune out the noise as scare mongering. This is a dangerous habit, but understandable. How many apocalypses can humanity suffer in a month? There is an attention deficit disorder when it comes to slower moving environmental challenges that will eventually wreak havoc. These are ignored either because they take so long to unfold, or humanity cannot solve them. At Ephesus, one such environmental challenge ended with the city’s abandonment. Learning about this was my one unforgettable takeaway from a tour of Ephesus.

A slow and continuous environmental problem can be more devastating than a faster one. A prime example of this was the silting up of the harbor at Ephesus. This harbor suffered such environmental devastation that even its ruins can no longer be seen. Ephesus relied for centuries on its outlet to the Aegean Sea which came via the Cayster River (Kucik Menderes). Ships could sail up and down the river, picking up or delivering goods to one of the largest and richest cities in the ancient world. The harbor was a make and break proposition for the city. Ephesus’ economic vitality was connected to it. The loss of the harbor through natural processes sealed its decline. Without the harbor, Ephesus was stranded and cut off from the Aegean Sea. This had dire consequences for the city, ones that would lead it to ruin.

Rising Tide – A Silting Situation

Human habitation in the Ephesus area goes all the way back 8,000 years to the Neolithic Age, but its glory days really began with Greek migrations to the area in the 10th century BC. The ruins that can be seen today start with the re-founding of the city by the Macedonian officer Lysimachus who ruled over the region in the late 4th/early 3rd century BC. Ephesus was then located where the mouth of the Cayster River flowed into the Aegean. It did not take long for the harbor to begin silting up from deposits left by the river. This became so problematic that Attallus II of Pergamon (r. 160 – 138 BC) had the harbor rebuilt. The situation improved, but only temporarily. A permanent solution remained elusive. Silting continued to threaten the harbor’s viability for centuries to come. Dredging periodically took place at great cost. The Ephesians were fighting a losing battle. The vast resources of the Roman Empire could only hold back the rising tide of silt for so long. One problem begat another as silting transformed the harbor area into a fetid marsh. Outbreaks of malaria led to population decline and consequently harmed the economy. The harbor eventually succumbed to the silting, and along with it went Ephesus.

The silting of the harbor at Ephesus did not capture my interest at first. The Goth’s destruction of the city in 263 AD (it was rebuilt) and numerous earthquakes sounded more dramatic. Those calamities were immediate rather than gradual. The slow, inexorable buildup of silt is not exactly enthralling for scientific novices. The idea of a harbor in what looked to me like an inland city seemed ridiculous. Where was the water? I saw neither river nor sea during my visit. Only later did I come to realize that the ruins of Ephesus are now five kilometers from the Aegean. The accretion of silt, dust, and debris was so invasive that the old harbor is now buried beneath it. Dig down deep enough and the reason for Ephesus’ abandonment can be found.

Ephesus & Earth - Fear In A Handful of Dust

The decline and fall of Ephesus, reminds me of a line from T.S. Eliot’s poem The Wasteland, “I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” The fear is of an environmental catastrophe. The dust is silt which clogged the main artery of Ephesus, slowly degrading its population and economy. In the wake of invasions and earthquakes the city could be rebuilt. Those events were quick and brutal. Dealing with an ongoing environmental challenge proved too difficult. Silting was slow, continuous, and inevitable. Dredging could only do so much, and it always turned out to be never enough. The environmental challenges our world faces today are similar. The temperature slowly warms, sea levels continually rise, and our efforts to stem these rising tides, both literally and figuratively, are largely in vain. The fate of Ephesus is a metaphor for the fate of our planet. Given enough time, the environment will always win. Nature is undefeated. Just look at the Harbor of Ephesus. That is, if you can find it.