Greece Trip: Home of the Virgin Mary and Ephesus (4.29.24)

The New Testament describes Jesus asking his disciple, John, as he is hanging on the cross, to take care of Jesus' mother, Mary, after his death.  The New Testament then describes Mary visiting Jesus' tomb.  What happened to Mary after that?  Tradition, if not scripture, says that she went to Ephesus with John and lived in a Christian community in the hills above Ephesus, in her own home, until her death.  Ephesus is on the west coast of Turkey.  John later moved to Patmos, an island off the Turkish coast, where he wrote the book of Revelation.  I don't know if it is true that Mary lived her last years in Ephesus, but I do know that her traditional last home is a beautiful place.  

We traveled into the mountains above the sunny coast, where Mary's small stone house was located in a leafy grove.  We walked through the house, which had just two or three small rooms.  

We then traveled to the seacoast, to the ruins of the great, historical city of Ephesus.  Ephesus, in the time of the Romans, was a wealthy city, a banking center with shops filled with expensive jewelry and other treasures.  

Both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, his rival, visited Ephesus, and it was in Ephesus that Mark Antony fell in love with Cleopatra.

Ephesus was also visited by Apostle Paul, on his missionary journey in about 54 A.D.  

Paul converted some of Ephesus' citizens to Christianity, and they burned their magic books, as is recounted in Acts 19.  Paul was ultimately chased out of Ephesus by sellers of graven images, who were afraid his lectures against idolatry would ruin their business!

As we walked among the ruins, stretching downhill towards the sea, we could tell that this had once been a great city.

A broad marble walkway leads downhill through the city, with the remains of homes and shops on each side.

The floors of several homes are paved with mosaics, a common decoration for wealthy Romans.

The iconic building in Ephesus is the Library, two stories tall, and spacious inside.

There are even rows of toilets where the common people could relieve themselves, if they didn't have a toilet at home.

Among the ruins were beautiful carvings and statues.

We passed the ruins of the agora, or marketplace, where the Apostle Paul might have made and sold tents, which was his career.

And we passed the amphitheater, where Mark Anthony and Cleopatra might have watched plays.

On the way back to the ship, we stopped at a Turkish carpet factory, where the owner showed us how his carpets were made and the, of course, tried to sell them to us!