Selcuk Things To Do

A small reconstructed stone house set high on Mt Nightingale 5 miles from Selcuk is believed by many to represent the place where the Virgin Mary spent her last years and died at age 64. Surrounded by gardens and tall pines in a nature preserve, the bulding currently serves as a church and a Moslem prayer room. Well-signed access from Selcuk is via an excellent but steep and winding road past the upper entrance to Ephesus. Along the roadway, a large golden likeness graces the highway.

Prior to the Crucifixion, Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to his favorite and youngest apostle, John. He selected Ephesus for his preaching, a large and relatively tolerant city, and built a house for Mary on this secluded mountaintop according to tradition. Until the Islamic control of Turkey, the ruins of the building were worshipped by local Christians. Further circumstantial evidence for the authenticity of the site comes from two local churches named for John and Mary as in early Christianity churches were only named for those who had lived nearby. After the Turkish takeover, memories of this site were lost in the foggy ruins of time.

In December 1812, a bedridden German nun named Anne Catherine Emmerich emerged from a fevered comatose state bearing the stigmata of Crucifixion and described in great detail visions of John and Mary coming to Ephesus and offered a detailed architectural description of her house including the layout and remarkably a spring of water running through the house, most unusual on a mountaintop. It would be more than 50 years before missionaries discovered ruins with these features, exactly as described. Analysis indicates that most of the ruins dated from the 6th Century but that the base was much older and probably from the 1st Century AD correlating with the religious legends.

The reconstructed building today contains an anteroom where candles are lighted, a small Catholic chapel, and a side room believed to be the bedroom with a fireplace used as a Moslem shrine. Since 1896, five popes have visited this site, most recently Benedict XVI in November 2006. There is no scientific proof of the authenticity of the house so the Vatican has not accepted the site officially, but it has been "unofficially" authenticated by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II. Secular visitors have ranged from Bill Clinton to James Brown.

The site is remarkably crowded receiving over 4000 visitors per day, most disgorged from tour busses clogging the woefully inadequate carpark but many pilgrims must be included in these numbers. The setting is a mountain top garden with a pedestrianized access road offering a small restaurant (with excellent apple tea), typical souvenir shops, and clean bathrooms. The small admission fee is for the village of Selcuk for mainentance as the chapel is cared for by a group of resident priests and nuns. There is an early morning mass daily with a large celebration of the Assumption each August 15th. Photography with the church is forbidden, the proscription strictly enforced. The entire site is pretty much wheelchair accessible.

We sometimes wonder if the cruise ship - tour bus crowd really understand in a deep and personal way the significance of the checklist stops on their itineraries. The House of Mary is venerated by Christians and Moslems and even we, as members of another faith, felt a certain difficult-to describe awe in walking in the footsteps of the Virgin Mary.

Things to Do in Selcuk

Selcuk Hotels

Visiting Selcuk?

Visiting Selcuk?