Efes ( Ephesus) (İzmir)

This pilgrimage center for Christians was home to the Virgin Mary and St. John. Ephesus is the first of the churches mentioned in Revelation chapters 1-3. The amphitheatre here is the location where craftsmen who made shrines of Artemis rioted against the apostle Paul. The house of the Virgin Mary is on Bülbül mountain near St. John's Basilica. The third ecumenical council convened in the church of Virgin Mary in A.D. 431.