Kusadasi: Seaside Getaway with a Hidden Face

Kusadasi, on the Turkish coast, is a seaside town with beautiful views. Bargain beach hunters flock to Kusadasi in the summer months, but, it’s not just a beach town. Truly magnificent history lies only a few miles away…

But first, some relaxation!

And now, the sites!

House of the Virgin Mary

Mary is believed to have spent the last years of her life living on a mountain above the city of Ephesus. The foundation of her home is the base of the church that squats among the green trees today.

The Basilica of Saint John

St. John lived to nearly 100 years of age, and he is believed to have been buried on a hill outside of Ephesus. In the 6th century, Emperor Justinian ordered a sprawling orthodox church built over the site. Some of the building materials came from the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World.

Of all the ruins we experienced in Turkey, this Basilica was the most surreal. This is as confusing to me as it might be to you because we visited the Basilica an hour after strolling the marbled streets of Ephesus, and Ephesus was breathtakingly magnificent and awe-inspiring. But, because Ephesus is so incredible, this amazing Basilica is somewhat overlooked, so part of it’s majesty was that we were out of the crowds.

The scale of the Basilica was also wondrous, both in square feet (it was large enough to hold a whole town) and in scale. The majesty of wide thresholds and towering doors made me feel like it was the ruins of an ancient kingdom. The Basilica’s position atop a hill and surrounded by mountains contributed to this mystical, mythical sentiment.

If you’ve seen the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, then you might be familiar with the scene where the Pevensie children are yanked from a train station onto a beautiful island crowned with ruins. As they pick through the ruins, they begin to feel like they’ve been here before, and they can imagine how it once looked–the staircases, the vaulted ceilings, the arched windows and domes…

For some reason, that’s how this Basilica felt to me. I’ve never been here before. I’m usually not even enamored with churches. I’m much more of a castle person, but there was something in the air, something in the scope, in the columns supporting an invisible roof and the thick stone beams of the doors that felt both slightly magical and slightly familiar.

Ayasuluk Fortress

I did just bring up castles and now here was are.

This Byzantine fortress crowns the hill above the Basilica. While most of our party opted not to climb the steep trail, I couldn’t resist.

Archaeological evidence suggests that there were castles on this hill going back to the Neolithic age. Possibly, this hill was the original site of the town of Ephesus before it moved several kilometers away and expanded. With a great sprawling valley below and a seaport not far away, the fort commands an excellent defensive position.

The fortress you see today was constructed in the 7th century to protect the Basilica when Arabs began invading the region. The fortified gate of the fortress has been standing since the 7th century.

Ephesus

I’ve been writing a lot about Ephesus and it deserves the attention, but I didn’t want to bury the Fortress and the Basilica in a post that was 95% about Ephesus. But, you’ve all waited patiently, so, without much further ado…the magnificent city of Ephesus!