Mary’s House at Ephesus

We arrived in Ephesus to visit Mary’s House and walk the streets of ancient Ephesus where St Paul preached.

Catholics believe that Mary and St John lived their last days in the hills above Ephesus. Mary allegedly appeared to an invalid to reveal the location of her house at Ephesus. The archeologists unearthed Mary’s House at that location.

Ancient Ruins at Ephesus

No one lives in Ephesus today. The area was abandoned because of earthquakes that frequent the area among other reasons.

This has meant the Archeologists have been able to unearth the whole city. The effort has been ongoing for over 100 years. They are about 20% finished. It is an active archeological site.

This was a marvelous place to visit! It was by far the most impressive site we have visited on this trip!

You can see how people shopped, entertained themselves, worshipped and studied. You can walk the marble streets where the horses and chariots roaming. You can see the covered “basilica” walk ways that people used.

There was no evidence of St Paul here and Mary for that matter. Ephesus was a huge pagan city until the time of Constantine. However, you can imagine St Paul preaching here and the lack of reception among the shop keepers as described in scripture.

The water delivery system under the streets was really impressive. The human waste removal system in evidence resembled our own!

Last day in Istanbul, Turkey  10/11/2014

We went to the largest Catholic Church is Istanbul for morning Mass.  It is a Basilica – St. Anthony of Padua. This church was indeed beautiful. Pope John XXIII was known in Turkey as Turkey’s Pope since he had served many years as the pastor of this church in Istanbul. So some reason, our bus did not pick us up right away to take us to the Chorea Museum. This meant that we dropped going to the spice museum.

 Basilica – St. Anthony of Padua

Chorea Museum

Leaving Istanbul

Our first day in Istanbul, Turkey was a full tour day. There were long lines everywhere we went.

We visited the Topkapi Imperial Palace, Hagia Sophia Church Museum, The Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar.

We had a Turkish lunch together before going to the Blue Mosque. This was a very tiring day and the stop for lunch was refreshing.

Topkapi Imperial Palace

The Imperial Palace was changed into a museum. There was no sense of what the palace might have been like be there. There was an immense display of royal jewelry. The extensive grounds were impressive.

Sophia Museum

The Sophia Church Museum is no longer used for religious services. The original Christian church goes back to 3rd century. It was destroyed and restored a number of times. It is filled with man, many mosaic paintings.

 The Blue Mosque

We had to wait in long lines to get into the Blue Mosque. There were services in the morning that excluded visitors so all the tourists seemed to show up at the same time. The women had to cover their heads so there were many vendors selling scarves although the mosque provided Milly with a head covering scarf.

The Grand Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar was truly an immense collection of covered “streets” of shops that seemed to fan out in all direction. There seem to be everything imaginable for sale.