Aegean coast, Turkey
Ephesus
What is there today
The façade of the library of Celsus still stands, along with a marble street with cart ruts worn into the stone and a theatre for twenty five thousand. Of the basilica of Saint John there remain the foundations and the tomb, and seven kilometres away a stone house that tradition marks as Mary s last.
Why this image comes from here
Here John wrote his gospel, from which comes the line written in the book on icons of Christ light of the world. And here, at the council of 431, it was defined that Mary is Mother of God, which is exactly what the two letters painted beside her ever since abbreviate.
Pieces from this place
- Christ, Light of the World
- The line on the book is from the gospel of John, and John wrote it in Ephesus, where he spent his final years. Of that city there remain a marble street and a ruined basilica.