The Basilica of St. John

Ephesus is also famous in Christianity for being one of the seven churches of Asia as mentioned in the book of Revelation, as well as for being the place where John spent time living. I was raised Protestant, and every Sunday in Sunday school I used to learn about things in the Bible, knowing it all happened in the Middle East on the Mediterranean, so it was neat to be able to see an actual place where some of the Bible was supposedly written nearly 2000 years ago when the major language of the region was Greek.

Before going to the Basilica and the citadel surrounding it, I visited one of the mosques nearby, known as the Isa Bey Mosque. 

Isa Bey Mosque

Isa Bey Mosque was built in the 14th century. The courtyard is still nicely landscaped. There were two minarets originally - one totally collapsed, and one partially remains.

The storks of Selcuk taking over more ruins

Next I walked up to the Basilica of St. John, commissioned by Justinian I in the 6th century. It is located on the hill where John the Apostle was said to have written the gospel of John and died, according to Christian tradition. In reality it is unlikely that the Gospel of John was actually written by an individual named John, but John is also credited with writing a few other books of the New Testament, including the book of Revelation, which he wrote while he was exiled to the Isle of Patmos. Some Christians take Revelation to be literal and about how the world is going to end, but some Biblical scholars say that John likely wrote it about Emperor Nero and concurrent events.

Ruins of the Basilica of St. John

A turtle in the ruins tries to hide behind a
fallen column to get away from the tourists.

Next to the ruins of the Basilica is the Ayasoluk citadel, originally a Byzantine castle, later rebuilt and added to by the Ottoman Turks. What's left of the citadel contains several cisterns, a byzantine church, and a mosque. I had read that recently the citadel had been closed to the public, but now it is open and you are free to walk around inside.

The Byzantine church, which they say is where St. John spent his time while alive.
I didn't end up getting a good picture of the citadel walls.

It was neat to see a little Christian history while in Turkey - the Aya Sofya is another great example, which I may write about later on. In both cases though you end up with a juxtaposition of Ottoman muslim history on top of Byzantine christian history, which reminds you how drastically a single place can change over time.