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Ephesus Church
It is one of the seven churches mentioned in the Bible. It had so much respect in the first century. Therefore Christians calls Ephesus and the Church of Ephesus as “Desired”. Also it was started calling as “love that gone first” after losing its importance. It is assumed that the Church of Ephesus is at the same location of Saint John basilica today. For this reason, we would like to give information about Saint John basilica located at the hill of Ayasuluk.
Information about basilica
The Byzantium Emperor Justinien has it made for Saint John in 6th century A.D. at Ayasuluk hill. The dimension of the basilica is 40m x 110m. It is entered from west side and its form looks alike the cross. The main church is the basilica that is covered with six big domes carried by thick elephant legs. The narthex is covered by a dome. Sait John’s tomb is under the dome and under the ground level, in the middle of basilica. In the west side of the tomb, there are some rooms that the priests lived. These buildings are separated from the church like a half circle.
The church was first excavated by archaeologist Sotiriu in 1921 – 22. The biggest part of the church was discovered by The Institute of Archaeology of Austria and was restored between 1957 and 1968. Then columns of second floor on north side were set on foot. The excavation, restoration and environmental arrangements have been in progress by Ephesus Museum under the supervision of Dist. Prof. Ekrem Akurgal since 1973. The overhead expenses are paid by The Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Quadman Foundation from USA.
According to written sources the church was in a bad condition at the beginning of the Middle Age and it needed some maintenance. People who believed that medicinal powder spread out from the tomb used to go long ways to the church to be cured. So the church kept its importance for this reason. According to traveler Ibn-i Batuta the church as used as a mosque in 14th century in the period of Aydinogullari. The minaret bases that were seen in the narthex entrance belong to this period. İ
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