2010 - Turkey - Day 6 - Ephesus, Turkey

Today we left our hotel at 9:30. We drove into Ephesus and our first stop was at the house of Mary. It is believed that Mary and John lived in Ephesus and that is where she lived the last years of her life. They found this house on the top of a hill over Ephesus, and they believe it was her house, because a blind nun had many visions of Mary. After she died, they read through her journals and she had given details about where Mary lived. So they went digging and found the foundation of a small house. They have rebuilt the house, but the foundation and first 1-2 feet are original. There was also some water springs under her house that they say is holy water, and a prayer wall where people tack their prayers. We then went down into Ephesus. I had been here 3 or 4 years ago, but it is an amazing archeological site; a place of one of the 7 churches, and where Mary, and John and Paul lived. At the end of our tour, as we started back to the bus, it started raining really hard! I didn’t bring my umbrella this day, because it looked so nice and sunny this morning. I shared moms with her, but the wind was blowing and it was coming down in sheets, that the only dry place on me was my face. My shoes were soaked through, and my jacket I just had to take off because it was drenched. I was so cold, but fortunately Mel from our group let me borrow his jacket for the remainder of the day, which I was so grateful for. After Ephesus, we went to see St. John’s Basilica. They built a big basilica over where they say John was buried. There is not much left of it today. They had a baptismal font in the center, and I found it interesting that it was a font for baptism by immersion. Our last stop was at the place of the site for the temple of Artemis, which was one of the ancient wonders of the world. It’s a big hole now with one reconstructed pillar. The British came to excavate it and took all they found and left a big crater. The locals call it the English hole in the ground. The temple had over 100 of these massive columns, it must have been magnificent. I had a picture taken with me standing at the base of the column, and I’m barely visible. We then went back to our hotel and arrived around 5:00 pm. We had a couple hours before dinner, and I had been chilled all day being wet from the rain, so I wanted to go soak in the hot tub in the hotel. Josie and I went down, and the Jacuzzi was not very warm. After a few minutes we went into the pool and it was warmer there. So we swam in the pool for about 20 minutes. Dinner was wonderful, as it was last night. We plan to read for a bit and relax until bedtime.