After an uninteresting stop-over in Katakolon (Greece) our stop today was in Izmir (Turkey). Here I heard of Mary’s house near Selçuk. Mary, the mother of Jesus-Christ was supposed to have moved here after the crucifixion of her son, Jerusalem being too dangerous for her. She spent the last days of her life in this little house until she died at the age of 101.
In the 17th century, a German nun named Emmerick had a dream where the location of the house was revealed to her. Although she never was in Turkey, her description of the place was so precise, that people begun searching for it. During one of these searches on a hot afternoon, the searchers asked some peasants where they could find fresh water. “At Mary’s well” was the answer; thus proving that this place was well known to locals before the search begun. Today, this place is a (too) well preserved little house up on a hill. Five popes visited it meantime, the last one being Benedict XVI.
Not far away from here is Ephesos, an antique city whose history begun around 6000 B.C. The Greek settled there around 1000 B.C, and around 560 B.C. erected the famous Arthemis temple, one of the 7 wonders of the world. Unfortunately nothing subsists of this temple. But there are other very impressive buildings, amongst them the Library (2nd Cy) and a giant theatre which could seat up to 25.000 people. Once the city of Ephesos was a harbor, with some 200.000 inhabitants, but today the sea is some 8 km away.
Mary's house
The library in Ephesus