Even in case you’ve been to Ephesus earlier than, you should definitely do it once more if you end up within the Izmir area of Turkey. The stays of the traditional metropolis had been found in 1863, and solely 37% of it has been found and preserved right this moment, however archaeologists proceed to work and Ephesus reveals increasingly of its historic secrets and techniques.
Just lately, Ephesus, a UNESCO World Heritage Website, has a brand new interactive museum that may immerse you, with all of your senses, within the thousand-year historical past of one of many best-preserved historic cities on the planet.
Ephesus Expertise gained prime honors within the Finest Museum class at this 12 months’s MONDO-DR Awards. The awards are among the many most prestigious within the fields of expertise, design and exhibitions on the planet and this 12 months they had been offered in June in Las Vegas, USA.
The awards, organized by MONDO-DR journal, had been established in 2017 to honor the most effective set up initiatives on the planet. Over time, the awards started to additionally have a good time achievements and greatest initiatives within the exhibition and hospitality sector, specializing in the design of exhibition venues, customer experiences and technical installations. The Ephesus Expertise Museum was awarded the prize, due to the excessive analysis of an impartial jury, which acknowledged the undertaking as excellent worldwide.
An immersive symphony
The Ephesus Expertise is likely one of the first museums on the planet to mix experiential museology with age-old storytelling. As one of the crucial intriguing locations on Turkey‘s Aegean coast and one of the crucial vital historic cities on the planet, Ephesus attracts 1000’s of vacationers yearly. Along with being generally known as one of many biggest port cities of its time, it was additionally included within the UNESCO World Heritage Checklist in 2015. Utilizing modern expertise, the Ephesus Expertise museum offers guests the chance to personally expertise the every day life, commerce, structure and artwork of the town throughout these golden ages.
Developed by DEM Museums, the Ephesus Expertise was designed by a big group together with architects, curators, designers, artists, expertise consultants, historians and archaeologists from main corporations and educational establishments in Turkey and all over the world. The museum immerses you in an unforgettable journey during which you stroll the streets of Ephesus, peer into the secrets and techniques of the traditional world and contact on a regular basis life up to now.
Ephesus has existed because the Neolithic, however gained significance through the Roman Empire because the capital of Asia Minor and a vital port. Because the second most vital metropolis within the Roman Empire, it grew and flourished. Its inhabitants of about 250,000 folks – metropolis within the context of historic occasions, is generally educated and rich, and its buildings are richly adorned and converse of the pursuits and well-being of its inhabitants.
As we speak, Ephesus is just not on the seashore – the passing river for hundreds of years introduced sediment to the port and finally clogged it. Town’s decline additionally coincided with disasters such because the plague and an earthquake within the twelfth century. Within the following years, the town continued to exist, solely to be lastly deserted within the fifteenth century.
Landmarks within the historic metropolis embody the Library of Celsus and the Nice Theatre, which has a capability of 30,000 spectators; the ruins of the Temple of Artemis; The Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates; the temple of Hadrian and the terrace homes.
In historic Ephesus, they worshiped the Mom Goddess, symbolizing fertility, who steadily acquired the picture of the Hellenic goddess of searching and nature, Artemis. In her honor, one of many Seven Wonders of the Historic World was erected in Ephesus – the Temple of Artemis, of which solely components of columns stay, sadly.
One of many grandest and best-preserved buildings is the Library, which was additionally a college. It’s the third largest library within the Greco-Roman world after Alexandria and Pergamon. Not like the primary two, nonetheless, right here the library is amazingly preserved. And throughout from her is the brothel.
The 2 buildings had been related by a tunnel.
On the road in entrance, on the port aspect, in all probability the primary commercial of the place for carnal pleasures has been preserved – it guides sailors and all those that need to discover love.
The general public bogs, which had been a spot for energetic social life, have additionally been preserved. Dozens of sufficiently giant holes are drilled within the stone “benches”, a channel with working water runs under. There was additionally a fountain with scented jets for freshness. The slaves needed to heat the chilly stone with their naked bottoms earlier than their masters took their flip.
The just lately opened terraced homes of Ephesus are additionally spectacular. Three residential complexes have been preserved, just one is open to guests. It consists of a number of residences on an space of 2500 sq.m. – on three terraces one above the opposite, immediately reverse Hadrian’s Temple.
Stays of a personal bathtub, an enormous reception corridor with painted partitions and purple and inexperienced marble cladding are preserved. The homes had been in-built 1st century, they had been final inhabited within the twelfth century.
The Home of the Virgin Mary, during which the Virgin is claimed to have lived after the resurrection of Jesus, could be very shut.
“The abode of the Blessed Virgin Mary was not positioned in Ephesus itself, however three to 4 hours away. It stood on a top the place a number of Christians from Judea had settled, amongst them holy ladies, her family members. Between this top and Ephesus a small river flowed with many crooked curves.” That is the imaginative and prescient of the nun and clairvoyant Anne Catherine Emmerich, in response to which the home was found within the nineteenth century.
In 1822, the Blessed Virgin appeared earlier than her and described intimately the place the place she lived till her Assumption. Everybody believed the nun unconditionally, as a result of they knew that she had by no means left Germany. When pilgrims got down to confirm the fortune teller’s phrases, in Turkey – in Ephesus, on the place indicated by Anne Catherine, they really discovered a home that precisely matched the one described by the nun.
After the nun’s dying, her visions had been revealed in a e-book by Clemens Brentano. The Catholic Church has not dominated for or in opposition to the home’s authenticity, however has nonetheless maintained a gradual stream of pilgrimages since its opening. Anne Catherine Emmerich was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 3, 2004.
The Home of the Virgin is just not by likelihood in Ephesus – the traditional metropolis performed a big position in early Christianity.
Custom claims that Ephesus is the town the place St. John the Apostle got here with Mary after the resurrection of Christ. Within the Gospel of St. John we learn: “When Jesus noticed his mom and the disciple whom he beloved standing close to him [by the cross], he stated to his mom: ‘Mom, behold your son!’ Then he stated to the disciple: ‘Behold your mom!’ From that second on, this disciple took the mom of Jesus into his own residence” (19:25-27).
Subsequent to the home of the Mom of God, a spring with therapeutic water gushes out from below the bottom. Round it’s a wall the place everybody can write their want. Tie a handkerchief or ribbon to the specifically positioned grid and say out loud what you dream about.
