Meryemana Evi or Mary's House and other Ephesus, Turkey Things to Do Tips

For three years, apostle Paul preached Christianism in Ephesus after 53 AD. When he died, apostle John replaced him as bishop. The legend says that Virgin Mary came with him and lived in Ephesus until her death.

A small Byzantine church stands on top of a hill, 7 km south to Ephesus. It is the church of Monastiri üç Kapu (Three doors Monastery). The legend names it Mary’s house. It was discovered at the end of the XIXth. Diggings revealed the ruins of a sanctuary from the Vth or VIth AD. Though it is an official pilgrimage site, visited by several Popes, the records of the Ephese council, that took place in 431 AD in a Basilica dedicated to Mary do not mention any Mary’s house. Moreover, all legendary writings about the death of Virgin Mary spot it in Jerusalem.

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The first photo shows the basilica dedicated to Isis that lines the state agora. In the background, the bouleuterion (see next tip).

The second photo shows a part of the state agora, paged with marble slabs. The Basilica and the Bouleuterion (almost hidden) are in the background. The state Agora is a rectangle 130 m x 56 m. It was built in the Roman Period in the 1st century BC. On the state agora were held governement meetings.

The third photo shows a general view of the agora (foreground), basilica (middle) and Bouleuterion (background).

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Website: http://www.ephesusguide.com/

The marble slab shown on the photo lay in the agora. It shows three identical lines, each of them made of twelve circles with a cross in the middle, which makes :

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The whole drawing is framed by a line.
What is it, I have not found. Is it for a game ? Is it a kind of computer to make calculation easier ?

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Website: http://www.ephesusguide.com/

The Bouleuterion wrongly called Small Theatre or Odeon was the meeting place of the city council or Senate, named boulé in ancient Greece. It could accommodate an audience of 1400. It was offered to the city by a wealthy citizen, Publius Vedius Antonius and his wife Flavia Papiana. It was built around 150 AD and had a roof. The bouleuterion stands on the slopes of Mount Pion.

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Close to the state Agora stands a stone with an interesting carving.

The first photo shows god Hermes, naked, leaning on a roam. He wears his winged sandals and holds the caducea, his attribute.

The second photo shows the caducea of Hermès, full length. This is the oldest recorded carving of the caducea of Hermès.

The third photo shows both faces of the stone.

Note : Hermès holds here the true caducea, a stick with a pair of wings and two interlaced snakes. It is the attribute of trade.
It is most of the time mistaken with the Asclepios stick (Asclepios was the Greek god for medicine). It has no wings and only one snake coiled around. It is topped by a mirror, meaning carefulness. It is the attribute of medicine.
To day, the name caducea is used by health professionals (physicians, pharmacists, nurses, veterinarians, etc..). Some are represented with 2 snakes and a pair of wings. They are actually caducea but are a symbol of trade, wrongly (?) used by health professions. Other are represented with one snake and a mirror and fit as symbols of health care but should not be named caducea! You can check that easily by a picture search on Google.

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Website: http://www.ephesusguide.com/

Curetes Street is the main street that leads from Hercule’s gate to Celsius library. On the photo, Celsus library (see other tip) shows in the background, at the end of the road, a little on the left. The street is paved with marble slabs. It has an underground system of pipes.

Sidewalks were protected from the sun under galleries held by decorated columns. Shops had their door opening in the gallery. The soil was decorated with mosaics. Most of Curetes street was built in the IIIth AD

Several earthquakes hit Ephesus and there does not remain much more of the buildings that framed Curetes street than the base of the columns.

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North to Curetes Street stands Trojan fountain. It was built between 102 and 114 AD. It was shaken down by earthquakes and has now been partly rebuilt : it is now 6-7 m high while originally, it was 12 m high. The statues of Dionysos, of Aphrodite, of a satyr and of relatives of Emperor Trojan, to whom it was dedicated, are on display in the museum.

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This photo shows the sidewalk, designated for pedestrians while the street was designated for horse drawn carriages. The street shows on the right of the photo. Each of the sidewalks was almost the same width than the main street : they were the place where citizens wandered quietly while the street itself was for transport.

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Each shop was a single vaulted room but was connected to an upper level. At the far end of the room, stairs allowed to climb to the upper level, standing on the slopes of Mount Pion, in recess. This is where the shopkeepers lived. There was actually several superimposed levels of houses, connected both by external and by internal stairs. This was the wealthy part of the city as traders were those that had the wealth.

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Temple of Hadrian is the most luxurious of all the monuments that line Curetes Street. It was built before 138 AD.

On the photos, the front of the temple, with four columns, is seen from Curetes Street. The lintels are richly decorated with vines, flowers and pearls. The two middle columns are topped by a carved arch. On top of the arch, stands the face of Tykhè, a local goddess (photo 3).

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