Private Ephesus, St. John Basilica, The House of Mary with Lunch

Your private guide will meet you at your Kusadasi hotel or Kusadasi port at pre-arranged time. Pickup time will be given during the confirmation of your booking.

After greeting, we will have a 2-minute drive to the Ephesus area to visit one of the main highlights in Turkey. Ephesus, one of the 12 cities of Ionian League (an ancient Greek district on the western coast of Asia Minor) is located near Izmir. As a port city it was a major departure point for trade routes into Asia Minor. Walk through history along marble streets lined with wonderful public buildings. Among them are the Baths of Scholastica and the Library of Celsus (it was built in the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. by Gaius Julius Aquila to be a memorial to his father Gaius Julius Celsus Polemanus, the proconsul of Province of Asia). The Temple of Hadrian and The Grand Theater are two of the most impressive buildings in Ephesus. The Grand theatre was built in the 3rd century B.C and it was later expanded to 24.000 spectators by the Romans in the 1st century A.D.

Our next stop is The House of Virgin Mary, located in the Aladag Mountains 5 miles away from Ephesus. At the third Ecumenical Council in 431 AD in Ephesus, it was claimed that Mary came to Ephesus with St. John in 37 A.D. and lived there until her death in 48 A.D. After the discovery of the house, the Archbishop of Izmir declared it as a place of pilgrimage in 1892. On July 26, 1967, Pope Paul VI visited this place and prayed there.

Lunch time: we will have a delicious Turkish kebap and mezes with salad with soft drinks included.

After Lunch we drive to St. John’s Basilica. It is believed that the evangelist St. John had spent his last years in the region around Ephesus and was buried in the southern slope of the Ayosolug Hill.

We will stop at the Temple of Artemis where one of the seven wonders of the ancient world used to be.

After the tour we will take you back to the Kusadasi city center or port.