Norwegian Jade Cruise, Day 5: Ephesus
After a night crossing the Aegean Sea, we arrive at Izmir, a sprawling port city on the Turkish coast — but our real destination is a bit farther south: the archaeological site of Ancient Ephesus. Uncertain of our transit options I’ve booked a full day with No-Frills Ephesus Tours, a tour agency that promises excursions without the shopping stops so common to these trips. We’re here for history, not high pressure rug sales.
Our tour guide is named Octavius — “Oktay” for short. He meets us at the port and takes us to an air conditioned van that smells just faintly of scented tobacco smoke. From there it’s about an hour’s ride across the lush Turkish lowland countryside to Selçuk, the town near Ephesus, where we pick up two more guests, a couple visiting from New York.
First stop near Selçuk: Artemision, the Temple of Artemis. Originally a massive Greek temple and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, today all that stands there is a single reconstructed pillar, topped with a stork nest and surrounded by damp marshland. In the distance, the Grand Fortress of Selçuk sits atop a hill, near the ruins of the Basilica of Saint John — ostensibly the apostle’s final resting place.
Back into the van, and a trip up Mount Koressos, and we arrive at what they call Meryemana, the House of Mary. The story goes that Saint Anne Catherine Emmerich had a vision of Mary living in a house on a mountain overlooking Ephesus. The ruins of a structure were later found in the location she had described, with a 5th Century bronze Mary statue lying in the ruins, and the building was restored as a reconstruction of Mary’s House and turned into a pilgrimage site.
Myself, I’m skeptical, given that Emmerich transcriber Clemens Brentano didn’t speak in her Westphalian dialect, only took notes on their conversations post facto, and may have fabricated certain material. While it’s reasonable to assume that Mary could have settled and died around Ephesus under John the Apostle’s care, the discovery of the structure could just as easily have been a case of confirmation bias. The statue indicates that Marian worship occurred in the building at some point, but not necessarily that it was Mary’s home. At the same time, display boards in various languages along the queue area give well-entrenched rationalizations to keep the house as a pilgrimage site. Meryemana has become an important pilgrimage venue for local Catholics and Muslims alike — and also a generous boon to the livelihoods of local tour guides.
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