Selcuk: The final home of Virgin Mary

  Selcuk, Turkey
Saturday, December 30, 2006

Our flight to Istanbul via Switzerland was uneventful, though I sat next to a crazy couple whole did not like the food in Italy. In Istanbul we got good directions to our neighborhood from the Turkey Travel Planner website (well recommended for anyone who is visiting Turkey independently). We didn't stay in Istanbul long, however, because the next day we had a 7am flight to Izmir, the main city by Selcuk and Ephesus. In the airport we learned the hard lesson of asking for prices if they are not posted when we paid the equivalent of $20 for two croissants and two small cappuccinos. Vultures. Those are the actual prices too. I think they just count on people not asking.

We were struck right away with how European this country looked and felt. Some women covered their heads but most dressed like any other westerner. People were a real blend of west and east. The economy has stabilized a bit so those rumors of how "cheap" Turkey is are wrong, wrong, wrong. Things are less than Germany, but Turkey is not cheap anymore just like Spain is not cheap anymore. They are tied to the Euro and the Euro is killing the dollar these days. Things won't get cheap for us until Asia. Plus, Turkey pays over $7 a gallon for gas so anything that has petrol involved is going to cost more.

Turkey also turned out to be the coldest country we had visited so far. The rest of Europe had a very late winter, so now in January things are starting to get colder. This was an issue when we arrived at our guesthouse in Selcuk and found that the websites proclamation of "central heating" not to be accurate. They, in fact, had no heating. We were brought to our room which was so cold we could see our breath. We had an A/C unit on the wall with a heater component and were told to turn this on. FYI, A/C units are good at cooling rooms but not good at heating rooms. Especially rooms that are 35 degrees. We went downstairs where we sat next to a small portable heater and shivered. The owner had many excuses from the expense of using the central heating system to the fact that it is unusually cold just today. Plus, the couple that "just" checked out LOVED the room. I bet. We did end up getting a heating pad to put on our mattress to keep us from freezing overnight. After letting the "heater" run all night it was around 60.

Another small change from the website was that instead of 24 hour hot water they had hot water at night and in the morning. I think this was code for "whenever you are not around" because we would run the water at night and in the morning and got tepid water at best. When we would complain and ask where the hot water was, the owner would look confused and say "everyone else got hot water!" The greasy bedheads around the breakfast tables told us otherwise. He was still defensive when we checked out (2 1/2 days without a shower) and had the nerve to say "you can take a hot shower now, we have lots of hot water" as we were rushing off to catch the bus. He will incur our wrath in the best way we know how - a bad review on Trip Advisor.

So, enough about the hotel. The town of Selcuk had a lot to offer with many sites to see. Also, the weather was great, sunny and warmer than the inside of the hotel. The first site we visited was the Basilica of St John the Evangelist. This disciple actually was based in the Roman city of Ephesus. He was buried here after he died, they marked the spot outside the city. When the Roman Empire went Christian, the emperor ordered a huge Basilica to be built at the site. It was so big, in fact, that if it was still standing it would be the 7th largest church in the world. But, as they say, history is written by the victors (or in this case, preserved by them) and when the Muslims moved in, the church fell into a state of disrepair, many pieces carted off to build mosques in Istanbul. They have rebuilt some walls with what was left and now it is a popular site for Christian pilgrims.

The next day we rented a car and driver along with a Japanese girl we met last night. Most of the sites are too far to walk to and no public transport goes to the house of Mary. Local taxi drivers know this and charge a fortune to get there. The house of Mary is believed to be the final home of Jesus' mother, who was brought here by John, the disciple designated to take care of her in her old age. Its discovery was quite a strange story. It was unknown to the Christian church for many centuries, but in the 1820's a German mystic nun, Sister Catherine Emmerich, had a vision of a home that she said was the house of the Virgin. She described the location and that it was in this part of Turkey. This nun was sickly and bedridden and had never left Germany, so no one thought much of it, but people did write down what she said just in case. Some priests who were working in this part of Turkey read her writings and decided to check out the area and see if she was right. The story goes that after a long search on the mountain they stopped for some water at a stream and when they looked above the stream they saw a house. It was just like the one that the nun described. When they asked some locals about it they said that there were some small Christian groups in the area who would come and visit that site every year. More investigation ensued and the final result was that the Catholic Church came to agree with the nun and declared that this was the last house of Mary (Much to the chagrin of the "Final House of Mary" in Jerusalem). Both Pope John Paul II and Benedict have come to visit the site since then. The place is very well taken care of by the Selcuk city government, who charge a hefty fee by Turkish standards to enter the area. The house itself is now designated as a church and cared for by Catholic monks. Admission to the church itself is free. Due to the season, the place was nearly empty so we got to spend a lot of time there.

The main site in the area is the ancient ruins of Ephesus. Made famous by the Letter to the Ephesians written by Paul and included in the new testament, This city was the Roman capital of this part of Asia minor and a big hub in its day. Unfortunately, the Roman empire ran itself into the ground and the port that made Ephesus such a hub silted up, so Ephesus was abandoned. In the late 1800's a Austrian archaeologist went digging in the area and uncovered this grand city of buildings. Excavations are still underway. They also rebuilt many buildings, including the fabulous library and bathes. Selcuk, the city now reaping the tourist dollars from this site, should be thanking their lucky stars that the site was excavated by Austrians and not by the British. The British excavated the nearby Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world. This pillar is all that remains of the temple. All the rest of the booty was carted back the British Museum - warehouse of the rest of the world's ancient artifacts. The Austrian's instead helped open a fine museum in Selcuk with the most important pieces from the site. When a gladiator graveyard was uncovered nearby, the city smartly capitalized on the Gladiator craze following the movie and put up a very fascinating exhibit.

When we came to Turkey we found that we were very outnumbered by Asian tourists, even more so than in the rest of Europe. After some investigating we found out that Korea gets a 2 month holiday at this time, so that is the reason we see so many Koreans in the winter. And Koreans like to come to Turkey, it is a very popular country for them. We were probably outnumbered 3:1.

Cheers!

 Along with Eri, our new Japanese friend, we met up with some Koreans and a guy from Netherlands and went out for dinner and beer with them. We ended up seeing them again on the trip as we went from city to city, which was fun. Not only does Turkey make excellent kebab, we also were introduced to a sandwich I can only describe as a Heart Attack Special - spicy processed meat, cheese, egg, mayo all fried together and pressed into deep fried bread. Total gut bomb.

Markets in Selcuk were hopping, with lots of Turkish Delight, pistachios and fruit to be bought. Eid al Haj was the next day so people were buying treats for the holiday. This also explained the bleating lambs being pulled along the streets in all the cities we passed on our way to Pamukkale, our next stop.

To see the rest of the Ephesus and Selcuk Photos, visit our Smugmug Selcuk Page!