AYASULUK HILL, THE ANCESTOR OF EPHESUS
Drawing Its Energy from History, Ayasuluk Hill Is a Place Unlike Any Other in the World.
The energy of a land with deep roots, where countless people and faiths have flourished, and of its multicultural fabric rises to the sky on Ayasuluk Hill…
Imagine, just imagine…
First, imagine a goddess, one of the greatest Greek goddesses… Artemis, twin sister of Apollo, goddess of the wilderness, hunting, archery and the moon. Then imagine a temple… Imagine the colossal temple built in the name of Artemis, the mother goddess of Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and its energy…
Imagine holiness: think of St. John, the youngest of Jesus’ apostles, one of the twelve, to whom Jesus entrusted his mother Mary. And now imagine the holy book this saint wrote in poetic language… Imagine the place where the tomb of St. John, author of the Gospel and the Apocalypse, lies, and the enormous sanctuary built over it by Emperor Justinian and his beloved wife Theodora. Imagine the energy of this cathedral, whose ruins can still be seen today and which is regarded as the most important Christian monument in the Aegean.
Imagine a holy sanctuary. Picture İsa Bey Mosque, built in 1375 in the time of the Aydınids (Aydınoğulları), as a symbol whose minaret gathers up the tolerance, goodness, diversity and vastness of these ancient lands and lifts them up into space…
And at the very top of all these holy places, imagine a citadel. In these lands where every civilization and faith has lived, you will see a crown set atop the miraculous story of humanity, advancing step by step… This is Ayasuluk Hill, the touchstone of culture.
Wherever you go in the world, you will not see such a diversity of faiths and monumental symbols so close together. That is why this area is so special.
And the energy that thousands of years and dozens of civilizations have gathered and given voice to, then distilled and poured into us, sometimes flows from a poet’s pen as poetry, sometimes as a hymn to God or a holy book that guides the lives of millions!
A TREMENDOUS ENERGY HANDED DOWN TO US FROM THOUSANDS OF YEARS AND DOZENS OF CIVILIZATIONS
