Posts Tagged ‘The Grotto of Seven Sleepers’
Around Ephesus
The Artemision
The Artemision was a Greek temple dedicated to Artemis. The construction completed around 550 BC and had 106 columns. The temple was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The most beautiful remaining of this temple are today exibited in the London British Museum.
The temple made ancient Ephesus a much visited pilgrimage place. In 356 BC The Archaik Temple was prey to a fire set by a mad man known as Herostratos and the very same night in Macedonia Alexander The Great was born.
The new building was started soon which had 127 columns with the height of 19m/62f.In the 5th C AD it was destroyed by a mob which was regarded as the final triumrh of chiristianity over paganism.
The House of The Virgin
The House of Virgin Mary is located on Mount Bülbül (8 km from ephesus).
A Germen nun Anne Catherine Emmerich had a vision of the house of The Virgin Mary and described it to the Germen Writer Clemens Brentano who published a book about it. Catherine died in 1884. In 1891 two Lazarist missionaries from Smyrna (?zmir) rediscovered the building.
The house was from the 6th C AD but the foundations were from the 1st C AD. In 1896 it was declared a shrine of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo XIII.
Pope Paul VI. Visited the house in 1967, Pope John Paul II. ?n 1979 and Pope Benedict XVI. ?n 2006.
Basilica of St. John
The Basilica of St. John is located on Ayasuluk Hill.A small church was dedicated to St. John in the 2nd century which was replaced by a huge basilica duilt by the order of Emperor Justinian in the 6th century.
According to legent John wrote his gospel in Ephesus at the request of other deciples, then he died in the church that named after him an Ayasuluk Hill.His grave was marked by a memorial and enclosed by a church in the 4th century. Tje traditional grave of his, located under the main central dome, made the cide one of the most sacred sites in the middle ages. But with the decline in importance of Ephesus and after Arab invasions, the basilica fell into ruins untill the Seljuk Aydinoglu clan converted it into a mosque in 1330. The construction was completely destroyed by the Mongol army in 1402. Fortunately recent restorations enable visitors to see its size and visualize its former splendor.
Ephesus Museum
Ephesus Museum, located in Selçuk Town has a form that given in 1983 which is not designed according to chronological order but themes such as ‘The Hall of Artemis’, ‘The Gladiator Section’,etc. The two best finds exibited in the museum are the marble statues of Artemis. One is from the 1st C AD and the other 2nd C AD.
Isa Bey Mosque
?sa Bey Mosque is situated next to Basilica of St John lower down the slopes of Ayasuluk Hill. It was built by ?sa Bey, the grandson of the founder of Ayd?n Principality in 14th C AD. It is the earliest known example in Anatolia of a mosque that has an arcated courtyard and a pool. The columns inside the room of prayer are from earlier ruins in Ephesus.
The Grotto of Seven Sleepers
The Grotto of Seven Sleepers was located on the easters slope of Panay?r Hill and became a major place of pilgrimage from the 5th to 15th centuries and many people were buried here. According to legend, 7 young men had been walled up in a cave during the persecutions under Decius (250). They fell asleep, miraculously waking up around 435 in the time of Theodosius II.
Sirince Village
Sirince Village, 12km away from Ephesus is so pretty that, contraryto the general tendency, migration to the village is from nearby towns or cities.
As a part of the peace settlment after the Greeks were defeated in Turkey in 1922, a formal Exchange of populations was agreed upon. At the end Turkey received about 50.000 Turks from Greece in Exchange for 2 million Greeks who han been displaced since 1912.
The houses of the Greek population of ?irince are the same old houses those offer visitors original views and nice axperiences.
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