Day 6 - Friday, June 16, 2023 - Kadasi Port - Ephesus, Turkey - Part 1

Day 6 - Friday, June 16, 2023 - Kadasi Port - Ephesus, Turkey

We woke up super early & had breakfast in the dining room before heading to our port of Kadasi, Turkey. 

I was SO excited to come back to Turkey.  Turkey is probably one of the top 2 places I’ve ever traveled, & I couldn’t wait to experience it with my family since I didn’t get to last time.  We met our tour guide, Kerem, just outside the ship & he was ready with a mini-bus to take us on an adventure through Ephesus for the day.  He was amazing & I still can’t believe how much we were able to see & still make it back to the boat by dinner at 5:30.

Our first stop was the House of the Virgin Mary.  It is located on Mount Koressos near Ephesus.  The house was discovered in the 19th century by following the descriptions of visions by Anne Catherine Emmerich, a Roman Catholic nun who was blind.  Anne dreamed about a location of ruins on the top of a mountain & her visions were published in a book by Clemens Bretagne after her death.  For years, many people searched for ruins that matched her description for the house of Mary after Christ’s death, & they finally found a site that matched her descriptions exactly in Ephesus.  It is believed that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was taken to this stone house by Saint John (the revalator) & lived there for the remainder of her earthly life.  There is a key shaped baptistery near the home that is believed to be a baptistery site for Christians escaping persecution in Israel, & there is a wishing well below the home where you can drink of the “miraculous water” granting life, wealth, & love as well as leave a “wish” on the wall.  It was really fun to visit.  The house is extremely small & you cannot take pictures inside, but it was really neat to see.  There is a red line painted along the bottom ⅓ of the building which indicates where the original foundational stones are.  Above that red line they’ve built/restored the building in the way it would have looked.  On one wall of the house there is a shadow that miraculously appeared that looks like the silhouette of Mary’s face.  I didn’t see it, but Trek did & said it was really interesting. . . They were moving the crowd through the house pretty quickly so I missed that part. 

After visiting the house, we went down & drank from the wishing well & watched people attach their “wishes” to the wall.  It was a beautiful site to visit & SO unique.  I’m glad we went there.

After visiting Mary’s House, our tour guide gave us the history of Ephesus.  The gospel of John is believed to be written here as well as the book of Revelation indicating that the church at Ephesus was strong.  Ephesus has survived thousands of years & actually has 4 civilizations to its name.  Ephesus 4 is modern day Ephesus where everyone currently lives.  Ephesus 1 was built by Amazonian women (Ephos, queen of the Amazons)  in the 10 Century BC on a hill (Ayasuluk Hill). A castle still stands where this original Ephesus was founded.  The Temple of Artemis was once one of the 7 wonders of the world & was the largest building of the ancient world.  The temple was built by Ephesus, son of the river god Caystrus before the arrival of the Ionians.  The temple of Artemis has since been destroyed completely (356 BC) except for a few stones which can hardly be seen.  Our tour guide then took us to Ephesus 2 which is the ancient forum of Ephesus that has been discovered over the last 100 years.  It was in THIS Ephesus that the Apostle Paul taught the Ephesians from 52-54 AD.  We spent 2 hours wandering around the ruins & exploring the discoveries there. 

My favorite was the Library of Celsus built in 125 AD during the Roman Empire. 

We also visited the ancient theater that held over 25,000 people & is the largest of the ancient world.  It was used for plays, concerts, & for gladiator fights.  It is also where Paul spoke to the Ephesians. We saw the temple of Hadrian as well as a statue of Emperor Trajan, or at least the FOOT of Emperor Trajan’s statue.  I could have spent HOURS here.  I love sites like these.  We took a bazillion pictures & loved every minute of it. 

As we were leaving, they had a little play going on of Marc Antony & Cleopatra’s wedding.  The kids loved watching the gladiators fight & the Egyptian dances.  It was SO FUN.