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The Church of St. John

     According to the historian Eusebios, St. John returned to Ephesus with Mary after being banished from Jerusalem between 37 and 42 A.D. He continued to write the Bible after the execution od St. Paul and after a period he died here at Ephesus. Following his will, he was buried in the sothern foothills of Ayasuluk Hill. First a wooden-roofed Early Christian Church was constructed in the 5th century over a simple graveyard and crypts were established within this church. In the middle of the 6th century, a monumental cross-in-plan basilica with domes was constructed by Emperor Justinianus ( Jutinian ) replacing this earlier church. With the moving of the Ephesians to Ayasuluk, the Basilica of St. John took over the position of the earlier Bishop’s Church at Ephesus.

     Ayasuluk Hill was encircled with walls constructed in the 7th century A.D. to protect the basilica and the related structures against Muslim raids. The material collected from the ruins of the Temple of Artemis, which had been largely demolished, were reused in the construction of these walls. The outer part of the walls was also constructed from material brought from other structures at Ephesus; its inner parts were filled with mortar and rubble stone and it was lined with towers to increase its strength. In the construction of these supporting towers, a pentagonal plan was generally employed; with a circular plan used in the West and tetragonal plan in the South. The wall had a total of four Gates and twenty towers. The strong, main entrance gate in the South was known as the “ Gate of Pursuit”. There were two square-in-plan towers on either side of this gate. There was an arched entrance in the middle of these two towers. On the arch there were a frieze with ivy, figures of Eros gathering grapes in the vineyard and a piece of a tomb which had a carved relief of grape vines. In the 19th century a second piece of this tomb, which depicted young girls narrating “the recognition of Achilles by Odysseus among the daughters of King Lykomedes on the Island of Skiros” and armed men, was taken to England and is today in the Museum at Woburn Abbey. Two phases of construction were observed in the walls surrounding and supporting the Basilica. The first of these phases was the construction of an additional terrace to the church during the reign of Justinianus, with Stones and bricks employed in the construction of these walls. The second phase, comprised those walls constructed as a defence against Muslim raids in the 7-8th century A.D., with the inner parts of these walls filled with mortar and rubble stone. The Basilica, which is of a cross plan, is 130 m. long and was entered through the Narthex Gate.

     There were five Gates from the narthex leading into the middle and side naves. It had a court (atrium) which was covered, with supporting columns in its middle. The middle and side naves were covered by 6 domes. These domes covered the burial grounds with the middle dome larger and higher than the others. The columns separating the naves were monoliths of blue marble. On the Byzantine Ionic capitals were carved the monograms of Emperor Justinianus and his wife Theodora. These monograms provide proof thatthe Emperor contributed to the construction of this church. There was a large ambon in front of the dais in the middle nave. The dais or burial grounds were two steps higher than the floor of the church. It ıs known that one of them belonged to St. John. There was a crypt under the dais. There were three tombs in the crypt, one of which is understood to have belonged to St. John. the chapel, having been constructed outside the northern transept and planned together with the Office of Revenues, was actually turned into a chapel in the 10-11th century and the depictions in the apse, of St. John on the right; Jesus Christ in the middle and an unknown Saint on the left, are in a very well preserved condition.  

    The Office of Revenues, situated to the left of the chapel, was a two-storey structure with a centralized plan. There were cross-in-plan parts and corner rooms surrounding the circular area in the middle. The sacred relics and treasures of the church were stored within these rooms. Furthermore a Baptistry was constructed in the 5th century A.D., with the basilica, with the remains of the wooden roof belonging to the period prior to the reign of Justinianus still to be seen today as, when the new church was constructed, it was preserved and its function continued. The apsed chamber to the east was the sacred chamber in which prayers after baptisms were performed. The central area of the Baptistry is reached from the western door of this octagonal-in-plan structure. There was a circular pool for baptism in the middle of the floor, with the sides of this pool consisting of stairs of three steps. The adjacent square pool was where the sacred water was kept. The apsed chamber to the far West, a symmetrical copy of that in the east, was used for the same purpose.

The Mosque of Isabey

      When looking down from the Church of St. John, at the entrance to the plain, which has been infilled through alluvial deposition brought by the River Cayster over the centuries, there stands the Mosque of Isa Bey. It was constructed by order of Isa Bey of the Aydınoğulları Emirate in 1375. It has a tetragonal plan, close to a square, measuring 56.53×48.68 m. In the Mosque of Isa Bey the minarets were located in the west and east corners of the actual area of worship. Today only western minaret made of bricks, remains in part, standing. Glazed bricks were used in the construction of the pedestal and in the body of both of these minarets.

     Even though the eastern and northern facades of the mosque, constructed from ashlar masonry, are plain, the western front was covered with marble slabs. The portal, in the middle of the western facade, has some of the characteristics of earlier 13th century Seljuk architecture.    The monumental portals was made of White and yellowish stone and surrounded by a carved moulding and the window frames draw attention with their elaborate embellishments.  

     The inscription ( Kitabe), which was above the door and measuring 1×6 m. has been lost. There is a construction notice below the door arch and iy states “ the Mosque was constucted by an architect from Damascus named Ali on the order of Isa Bey of the Aydınoğulları Beylik in 776 (H)”. On proceeding into the court from this highly decorated gate, one sees in the courtyard a polygonal water-tank with a fountain, the court surrounded by porches on three sides.The columns and the columns capitals used in the porches were reused material. It is known that the porches were covered by wooden roofs. The area where acts of worship were carried out in the mosque was reached by passing through the jagged arched three Gates, supported by small columns. This area for prayer was divided into two sections by four great granite columns. The mihrap was covered by two domes, each with a diameter of 9 m. The interior of the domes was covered in blue and turquoise glazed tiles. The marble mirhap has been restored.

The Baths of Isabey

       There were four baths in the city of Ayasuluk, today called Seljuk, dating from the rule over the city by the Aydınoğulları Emirs and the Early Ottomans (1350-1450). The fact that baths were frequently constructed and were elaborate, exhibiting the characteristics of their periods indicate these bath were erected during the golden age of the city of Ayasuluk, when it was the capital of an important and wealthy Emirate-state, in part because Ayasuluk was a majör trade centre, visited by many merchants from the Latin West in the 14th and 15th centuries and was alsothe focus of a rich agriculturel hinterland. For sound seismic, as well as for decorative reasons in the constructions of these baths, courses of stone and courses of bricks were used in the walls and only bricks for the domes and vaults. The decorations in the baths extended to the domes and on the pedentives of the domes. Despite the similarities between these four baths, all of them had different plans. The relative position of the dressing-robing areas in these four baths is today unclear. In the period before the excavation of the Baths of Isa Bey, the warm section, the higher walls of the furnace, with the domes and vaults covering these rooms, had been demolished. During the excavations the floor of the magnificent dressing area was unearthed; however the walls and the superstructure were not found. From current information it is thought to have had a wooden roof and a cross-like and four cornered celled plan was employed in the construction of this bath house. With later additions, it was converted into a double bath. The stucco (a mixture of plaster and marble powder) decorations on the inside of the domes and roofs are exceedingly fine.

The Temple of Artemis (Artemission)

     The Temple of Artemis, considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World by ancient writers, was situated by the marshes to the southwest of Ayasuluk Hill. Its first construction was by the seaside. However this temple that stood by the seashore is today 5 km. inland, due to the alluvial infilling of the bay. Today there remains a 14 m. high column (its original height was 18.40 m.) in the northeast, which was erected in 1973 with the aid of pulleys, an archaic column pedestal, a part of which can be seen, and a pedestal dating from the Late Classical period, which stood insitu right above the column. On the western side, the court walls of the Archaic temple, the point where the doorpost were attached, the traces of the Archaic marble stylobates, the southern anta in the classical covering of the Archaic temple, the West and North edges of the Archaic and Late Classical temples and the foundations of the hekatompedos can still today be seen. The structures connected with the foundation of the stairs leading to the platforn of the Late Classical temple from the western court, the structures in the South of the foundation of the hekatompedos (naiskos, channel, road and the apsed structure) and the Archaic and Late Classical altar foundations can be seen. In the excavation area covered with ground water, from time to time earlier structures in the court, the traces of Temple C., the naiskos of the Temple or Kroisos and the cella walls of the peripteros can be seen but this depends upon the level of the water within this excavated area. According to Strabo this temple had been repeatedly ruined and reconstructed. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient World. The oldest traces of the temple, which underwent many construction phases, date from the 8th century B.C. This first temple was a peripteros planned structure with 4 columns on its short sides and 8 columns on its long sides. In this peripteros, the tetragonal platform surrounded by 6 columns functioned as the pedestal ( baldaken) for the religious statue. From this earliest structure only the pedestals of green schist that supported the wooden columns were found during the excavation. This temple was believed to have been ravaged by the Cimmerians.

     The dipterous plan of the magnificent Temple of Hera in Samos made the Ephesians jeleous and it was then that they decided to construct a temple more magnificent than the Temple of Hera at Samos. Herodotus indicates this structure was called the Temple of Kroisos because of the financial and mortal support of the Lydians including the columns that were donated by Kroisos during the construction of this Temple. Around 560 B.C. the construction of the first great marble dipterous began on the east-west axis, known to have been the Temple of Kroisos. The architects of the Archaic temple were from Samos, Theodoros, Metagenes and Khersiphron. The Temple was situated in the marshes and in order to create foundations in this marshy ground the recommendation of the most prominent Samian artist, architect and sculptor, Theodoros, to put wood charcoal and fleece under the foundations (temeun), was followed and traces of charcoal and ash remains were found in the excavations. The foundation were created by putting big slates on these chunks of charcoal. Above this layer, polygonal marble panels, which constituted the surface of the Stylobate, were bonded and the floor of the temple was created, measuring approximately 55×115 m. Each of the columns (approximately 106 in number ) were adorned with carved patterns on their lower sections ( Columnae Caelatae ), with the load system on the Stylobate carrying the weight, each section weighing more than 100 tons, with the marble roof pediments carrying carved figurines and with carved marble roof tiles. However this roof didnt cover the whole of the temple but only covered the peristyle. The inner area, called the Sekos, was open to the sky and this was where the covered structure containing the religious statue in the naos was kept. The construction of this 6th century temple, that which is considered to have been one of the Seven Wonders of the World, lasted for 120 years. However in 356 B.C. it was burned down by someone who wanted through this action to immortalize his own name. Herostratos and this layer of fire damage was found during the excavations.

     After the temple was burnt, the Ephesians began the reconstruction of th etemple. The architects of the new temple were Paionios, Demetrios and Kheirokrates. In the 4th century B.C. due to be rising sea level, a platform was constructed to prevent the ground water from flooding the temple. Another line of columns was added to this structure with stairs. In addition an opisthodomos was added to the West facing rear side of the temple for the protection of the gifts that were donated to the Goddness Artemis. Thus there were three lines of 9 columns in the rear by the short sides and three lines of 8 columns in the front facing West. When observed from the sides, it had 21 columns on each side in two rows. This temple had in total 117 columns. In the depictions of the temple on coins, a door in the roof was observed and it is said this door was made and functioned as the place through which the Goddess Artemis watched the sacrifices that were made in her honnor. According to the writings of Plinius (Pliny), the columns of this Hellenistic Temple of Artemis were 18.40 m. high. When Alexander the Great visited Ephesus, he offered to help in the construction of the temple and requested that an inscription with his name be put in the temple. Thus Alexander the Great would be famous, just like Kroisos was with his temple. However the proud Ephesians politely turned down his offer, flatteringly replying to his offer with the words” One God cannot give present to another”. Despite this reply, Alexander the Great made financial contributions to be construction of the temple and this wonderful temple was completed before the end of the 4th century B.C. The commotion caused by the civil wars in Rome, the economic problems and the alluvial infilling of the bay strained the financial resources of the Temple of Artemis. The organized precautions, began under the Council in the 6-5th centuries B.C., came into effect during the reign of Emperor Augustus and all the borders, paths and drainage within the temenos wall, which was made of ashlar stone blocks covered in inscribed notices, were inspected and repaired. According to Strabo, the temenos wall was 1 stadion’s distance from the temple and the temnos wall marked the border for those people seeking sanctuary under the protection of Artemis. Later during the reign of Emperor Titus (79-81A.D.), large scale renovations were conducted in the sacred place.

     The Artemision was ravaged by the Goths in 263 A.D. but the real devastation came in 400 A.D. when the cult of Artemis ended and the altar, along with the surrounding colonnade and pediment were destroyed. The torn down temenos wall was reused during the Late Antique period in the construction of the Church of Mary and the erection of the Bishop’s Place. Much material from the Artemision was reused in the Basilica of St. John and in the construction of its outer walls. The Temple of Artemis was discovered for the British Museum in 1869 by the English railroad engineer J.T. Wood after a seven year seacrh, during which he suffered badly from malaria. In these lengthy searches Wood found another classical platform upon an Archaic podium, in the traces of the foundation of the Late Classical temple and sent them to England, to the British Museum. His successor on behalf of the British Museum, the Englishman D.G. Hogarth recommenced excavations in 1904/05. Not only did he investigate the temple of Artemis, but also the older foundations within the court of the temple. New excavations, initiated by the Australian Museum of Archeology in 1965, continue today.

The Cave of the Seven Sleepers

     The modern path, leading out from the city walls, leads to the Cave of the Seven Sleepers on Mount Pion (panayır Dağı). According to written accounts, this is the place where seven young men and their dog came to after running away from the city because of the persecution of Christians during the reign of Emperor Decius (249-251A.D.) and after falling asleep, they woke up 200 years later during the reign of Emperor Theodosios ll. When these seven men and their dog woke up after the passage of 200 years, Christianity had become the official religion of Rome. The same story is also known and believed by Muslims (it is related in the 18th Sura of the Holy Koran). This account has been associated with many other caves in Anatolia. The next most important of these other cave of the Seven Sleepers was the sacred cave at Arabissos in Cappadocia The oldest part of the sacred place at Ephesus is the graveyard section, established in the 4th century A.D. around this wide fissure in the foothills of Mount Pion. There was a small, two-storey graveyard structure and ten crypt chambers under the ground, where the seven men were thought to have been burried and a church was then constructed over this place. Legends record it was constructed in the middle of the 5th century A.D. during the reign of Emperor Theodosios ll and this date accords with the archeological finds, the date of the traces of mosaic and murals. The church was connected to these underground chambers via stairs in the norhern wall of the front entrance. The church had a main chambers with domes and mosaic floors, theater-like built-in benches of square section, a synthronus, upon which the bishop and this presbyters sat, and an apsed presbyterion with an altar. There was a vaulted and covered crypt on the western side of the church. When the crypt became full, various new crypts were constructed of brick and about 700 of these crypts were found here. The cave, which was accepted as the site of the cave of the seven sleepers by Christians, has been visited not only by Christians but also by Muslim pilgrims since the Middle Ages.

The Cave of St. Paul

     Around 1900, the cave in the foothills of Mount Bülbül at a height of 100 m. to the North of the Temple of Serapeion was found by O. Benndorf.  The cave of St. Paul was made by being roughly carved into the bedrock; producing an approximately 15m. long aisle and a slightly larger chamber. Today the chamber, whose floors have been flattened and joined by steps, can be entered from the aisle decorated with reused materials. There are two niches of different sizes on the landing on the southern side of the aisle. The larger niche on the right side of the entrance reached the ground; but was only roughly and irregularly carved. The arches and aisle walls were covered in many layers of plaster. There was an antique panel carrying carvings of various prayers beneath the 20th century plaster of the uppermost layer. On this panel are invocations to St. Paul and”God, please help your disciple Timotheos!” During the conservation and restoration work in 1998 the murals depicting stories from the life of St. Paul and St. Thekla were found.