Selçuk. Ephesus.
Selçuk. Ephesus.
COASTLINE OF ASIA MINOR AND EASTERN THRACE
302
555. Ephesus, Saint John Theologos (Έφεσος, Άγιος Ιωάννης ο Θεολόγος)
of religious and secular buildings, various sculptures, objects
of minor arts and inscriptions clearly reflect a large city of Late
Antiquity and the middle ages. A result of the Sassanid raid in
614 and of Arab raids in the 7th-8th c. was the restriction of the
city within the Byzantine walls. In the 10th c., due to the silting
of the harbour, the city moved to the Ayasoluk hill, which had
been fortified since the 8th c.
The church of the Virgin Mary is Ephesus’ most significant. It
is an oblong-shaped, three-aisled basilica built in the 5th c. in
the S portico of the Olympieion enclosure, where most prob-
ably the Council of Ephesus took place in 431. Next to it were
the bishop’s palace and a baptistery. After the church was
destroyed by earthquake, possibly that in 557, it was rebuilt as
a domed basilica. Various repairs had been made by the late
10th c. (?). Over the grave of Saint John Theologos, located
outside the city, a martyrium was built (4th c.?). In the 5th
c. a large, cruciform basilica with baptistery and sacristy was
established. During the time of Emperor Justinian and Theo-
dora, circa 540-50, it was converted into a huge, domed ba-
silica, similar to the church of the Holy Apostles in Constanti-
nople (Procopius,
De Aedificiis
, VΙ, 4-6). Remnants of liturgical
equipment indicate that it also operated in the Mid-Byzantine
years. The sacristy was later converted into a chapel and was
decorated with wall-paintings from the 10th-11th c. Remains
of the water supply system and a cistern survive SE of the
Ayasoluk hill. Other Early Christian and Byzantine buildings
are as follows: basilica at the E gymnasium, of the 4th-5th c.;
church built at the Serapeum in the 4th c.; conversion of a
circular building of the imperial period into a church that is
erroneously called the “grave of Luke the Apostle”, as well as
the 5th c. establishment of a church at the sanctuary of Ar-
temis; small monastery (?) W of the church of Saint John The-
