House of Mary & Ephesus

Well, let me start with my doubting remarks and go from there. It is "tradition" in the early Christian Church that John the Apostle took Mary (the mother of Jesus) under his patronage and looked after her until her death. It is known that John did go to Ephesus and later was exiled to Patmos but was returned to Ephesus before he died of old age. John is the only Apostle to die a natural death and his age is give by tradition to be close to one hundred years. So, is this really the house that John built for Mary? Is it in the right or correct location? It could be. It could be a nice and pious location that early Christians referred to as the "house of Mary". It could be a lot of things, but there is no "proof" other than what you choose to believe. If it helps you in your road to awareness, keep it and treasure it, if not, enjoy the tour, enjoy the location and be happy that you are there.
here is what the signs say:


And for those who constantly have nothing good to say about Islam, you should know that Mary is honored in the Koran, and is known as Miriam and that she gave a virginal birth to the prophet Jesus. A lot of respect is paid to her, more than to the mother of Mohamed! So for the Muslims who come to honor Mary here, they too have this:

Here is the building, built upon the foundation that was laid by John the Apostle, and is a small chapel of prayer.


From here we went back down to the valley area and into the heat of the day to visit Ephesus. Ephesus is one of the more important cities in early Christianity. It is here that John the Apostle, Peter, Paul and Barnabas all preached at one time or another. It is from here that the doctrine of Theotokos was proclaimed in the Council of Ephesus as well as where John Chrysostom was born, raised, and ordained a priest before his being called to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) to be the Bishop of Haggai Sophia. It is here that one of the great libraries of the ancient world once stood, but today is only a facade raised from the ruins.

It is a city built upon a hill that looked down on the sea coast. Today, the sea is far from the port and the city itself left to be dried in the sun. It was a burning hot day that we were there and we walked the length of most of the ancient city. As you can see, we did not walk it alone!


By the way, who is this man? Does ANYONE KNOW?*

As I said it was a VERY hot day. Cathy and I each finished a liter of water during the walk. Shade was at a premium, so much so that they were selling umbrellas on the ship. Cathy got one, and she found shade!


This is an ancient temple, followed by a detail of the inside of it.



On our way to the Library we passed the ancient public toilets.....OF COURSE I TOOK PICTURES!


It must have been a beautiful city in its zenith, as here is a mosaic walkway.


After a long HOT walk we reached the Library of Ephesus. I must say this for the tour, they started at the TOP of the hill and we walked our way DOWN the hill and out of the area.


Cathy and I at the Library steps:


And here are two shots of the theater of Ephesus. It is here that Paul preached and recently Luciano Pavarotti sang, well not too recently.


The road that is leading towards or away from the theater used to lead to the sea.
At least ONE creature was comfortable during the heat of the day!


*The gentleman in the picture was the father of the young man from Fresno Pacific who put this trip together. His name is Bob Bacci. This was his favorite thing to do, was to walk up when people were taking pictures and lean in. I have a few of him in my stack of prints as well as with Cathy.