Your private guide will meet you at Kusadasi port with a sign written “Your Name“ on it, anytime you want. After greeting, we will have 20 mins. drive to Ephesus area. We will start visiting 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 the Baths of Scholastica, 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. Grand theater was built in 3rd century B.C and it was later expanded to 24.000 spectators by the Romans in the 1st century A.D.
House of Virgin Mary is located on the Aladag Mountains 5 miles away from Ephesus. At the third Ecumenical Council on 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 there as a place of pilgrimage in 1892. On July 26, 1967, Pope Paul VI visited this place and prayed there. After House of Virgin Mary, drive to Basilica of St. John, it is believed that the evangelist St. John had spent his last years in the region around Ephesus and buried in the southern slope of Ayosolug Hill. We will stop at Artemis Temple where used to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world as our last stop before drive back to Kusadasi town center and port.
The end of our services.
