Basilica of St. John...

I had never thought about it, but Paul wasn't the only one to go to Ephesus.  Others from the Church in Jerusalem traveled to different cities in and around Turkey.  The disciple John spent many years in Ephesus along with Mary, Jesus' mother.  Since John was given responsibility for her, it would make sense that they would have traveled together.

After his imprisonment on the Island of Pathmos, John returned to Ephesus where he wrote the fourth gospel.  When he died, he was burried on a hill overlooking the sea.  Eventually a church was built to protect and honor his grave site.  When that small church was destroyed, in the beginning of the sixth century, a huge cathedral was built in it's place by Emperor Justinian. 

In the eleventh century, the Turks captured Ephesus, but even then, the Byzantines stayed in the area for another three hundred years.  The basilica of St. John was eventually destroyed in an earthquake, but if it still existed today, it would be the seventh largest church in the world.

There's your history lesson for the day.  Now some pictures...

The gates...

Ruins of the church...

The Baptismal...

For me it was a moving moment to think of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who had been baptized in this place. 

A model of the church...

The Temple of Artemis (Diana)...

This is the only remaining pillar of the 120 columns that originally made up the temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.  The temple site has been plundered many times over the centuries, but no one has ever touched the site of the church  of John that overlooks it.

The Isa Bey Mosque that sits at the foot of the hill...

Much of the building supplies of this mosque were brought over

from the ruined city of Ephesus...

 

The grave site of John...

When the church was excavated in the 1900's, coins were found dating back to the first and second century, showing that this was commonly accepted by Christians at the time, to be the site of John's grave.  It was interesting to see how different people responded to this.  A group of Japanese ladies posed with the grave like they were visiting Disneyland.  When I went back later to take these pictures, I thought I was alone, until I came closer and saw that a group of about 40 Anglicans sitting there quietly, not talking.  I liked their approach better...

It was a bit of a surreal experience to walk around the ruins of that church, and realize that Mary and Paul and John had all walked where I was walking, and had looked out over the same valley (granted it was all water back then).  Tradition tells us that John wrote his gospel just up the hill from here.  With the warm sunshine and breeze off the Mediteranean, it was a very peaceful spot.

I enjoyed this place a lot...