Biblical accounts state that St. John and Mary were entrusted to each other by Jesus before his crucifixion and John duly obliged. They both travelled to Ephesus at approx the year 42 AD. It is said that there was a church built in Ephesus dedicated to Mary long after her death. It was only allowed that churches of saints or martyrs of Christianity were granted permission to be built in Turkey, so I suppose this may be further evidence that Mary was held in high regard in this land. It is also recorded in Council proceedings and records, that Mary had stayed for a brief period in the location of Ephesus, or in a house in it’s immediate neighbourhood. She is said to have later moved to a permanent house on Mount Pion (some know it as Mount Nightingale, and it also has a Turkish name which I cannot pronounce or spell) where she lived until the age of 64 yrs and died in the year 46 AD.

Christianity was not a wide spread religion in those days and the house where Mary was said to have spent her last days was forgotten until a vision by a German nun (Anna Katerina Emmerick, (1774 – 1821) who mentioned details of the house in her book, “The Life Of The Virgin Mary”) prompted the curiosity of two members of the French College in Athens to search for the site in the early 1890’s. They later discovered the house in ruins with only the foundations and the scattered stone blocks strewn around the area and realised the significance of the remaining structure. They confirmed it to be dated from the 1st century.

It was finally rebuilt in 1951 from local accounts, and when visits paid by Pope Paul VI in 1967 and John Paul II in 1979 to Ephesus confirmed the belief that the Virgin Mary had lived and died in Ephesus. The house is now considered as a shrine by the Vatican.

As well as in The Bible, Mary is recognised in the Quran and the Torah so this site is heavily guarded by the Turkish military against a terrorist attack. There is also an American air base nearby in Izmir, which I am told by the guide is also being manned by the Royal Air Force, similar to the American air base in Incirlik. This is presumably because of the failing economy and unrest in Greece, which is situated around 700 miles off the west coast. Potentially this could be a very volatile part of the world.

You will see people of all faiths visiting The House Of Mary and the drive up to the top of the mountainous hill, through national park land where it is situated, is well worth the effort. Around the house is a wall and the face of the wall is covered by a trellis. This is used by people of all faiths to tuck pieces of paper on which they have written their individual wishes. There must be thousands of wishes from people all over the globe. It’s quite emotional seeing them tucking their little messages in between others onto The Wall Of Wishes. A landscape of wishes, each seems to support the one next to it.