
Top Places to Visit in Kusadasi. Read more.
Top places to visit in Kusadasi Turkey. If you will travel there with a gulet and stay there for a couple of days and you like history and archaeology sites check out all the places you can visit there.
Ephesus, once, the trade center of the ancient world, a religious center of the early Christianity and today, Ephesus is an important tourism center in Turkey.
The ancient city Ephesus is located in Selcuk, a small town 30km away from Kusadasi.
Virgin Mary IS Located on the top of the “Bulbul” mountain 9 km ahead of Ephesus, the shrine of Virgin Mary enjoys a marvelous atmosphere hidden in the green. It is the place where Mary may have spent her last days. Indeed, she may have come in the area together with Saint John, who spent several years in the area to spread Christianity. Mary preferred this remote place rather than living in a crowded place.
The house is a typical Roman architectural example, entirely made of stones. In the 4th century AD, a church, combining her house and grave, has been built. The original two-stored house, which consisted of an anteroom (where today candles are proposed), bedroom and praying room (Christian church area) and a room with fireplace (chapel for Muslims). A front kitchen fell into ruins and has been restored in 1940″s. Today, only the central part and a room on the right of the altar are open to visitors. From there one can understand that this building looks more like a church than a house. Another interesting place is the “Water of Mary”, a source to be found at the exit of the church area and where a rather salt water, with curative properties, can be drunk by all.
Paul VI was the first pope to visit this place in the 1960″s. Later, in the 1980″s, during his visit, Pope John-Paul II declared the Shrine of Virgin Mary has a pilgrimage place for Christians. It is also visited by Muslims who recognize Mary as the mother of one of their prophets. Every year, on August 15th a ceremony is organized to commemorate Mary”s Assumption.
The temple of Artemision is known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Antic world. It has been built in the areas of Ephesus on a flat area which has over the centuries turned into a swamp. Today one can only see the ruins of the foundations of this marvelous construction of the Hellenistic Age, entirely made of marble and full of sculptured columns” capitals and shafts. The most beautiful remaining of this temple are today exhibited in the London British Museum.
The oldest remaining found date back to the VIth century BC. It was surrounded by 36 huge columns, later enlarged upon the orders of the Lydian King, Kreisos, during the VIth century BC. Most of the exhibits in the London British Museum belong to this period.