Kusadasi

A very long time ago, Ephesus was settled by the Lydians and Carians who worshipped the Anatolian goddess Cybele. By the tenth century BC, the Greek Ionian colonists arrived at what was then a seaside settlement, and they combined the cult of Cybele with their own veneration of the goddess Artemis—their version was a mysterious fertility figure depicted in art with many breasts. Her cult was very popular and Ephesus was too, until the Lydian king Croesus swept in and destroyed it in 550 BC, rebuilding the city near the temple of Artemis where it remained until 301 BC and the advent of Alexander the Great’s general Lysimachus—who saw that the port was silting up, so he moved the city yet again. By the time the Romans rolled in Ephesus had well over 200,000 inhabitants, making it the banking and trading center of the east and the biggest city in Anatolia by far.

While still in its heyday Ephesus was the scene of events that marked the sometimes-haphazard transition from pagan worship to Christianity. Apostle John made many converts even before St. Paul came to town and made even more, but not everyone was thrilled: the local silversmiths who made living selling figurines of Artemis felt their livelihoods were threatened by the new religion and literally shouted St. Paul out of town! Even so, the site of Ephesus, which was inscribed in its entirety on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2015, is particularly important for the faith traveler as it contains the stone House of the Virgin Mary. It is believed that the Virgin Mary was taken to this stone house by St John, where she lived until her death at the age of 101. And the Church of the Virgin Mary, close to the original harbor of Ephesus, was the setting for the Third Ecumenical Council in 431. In the sixth century the harbor silted up anew and the city was abandoned for a new site at modern Seljgb.

With its huge front door and decorative interior, you might at first mistake the Fortress Mosque, also known as the Kaleici Camil, for a palace. It is one of the most impressive landmarks in Kuşadası, reflecting the classical Ottoman architecture and spanning an area of over 1800 square meters. The mosque was built by Okuz Mehmet Pasa in the 17th century and features stunning oil paintings and stained-glass windows, as well as striking columns and a rather large dome. One of the most beautiful spots in Kuşadası is Güvercinada or Pigeon Island, attached to the mainland by a causeway and home to a Byzantine fortress built to repel pirates and later rebuilt by Barbaros Hayrettin Pasha, a famous admiral of the Ottoman Navy. The historical structures blend with fun shopping in the Kaleiçi quarter.