Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Church of St John



















This are the ruins of a church dedicated to St John, ordered built by Emperor Justinian. Under his reign there were ambitious building projects all over the Byzantine Empire. The church, like so many others, was convertd to a mosque under the Ottomans but was later destroyed by an earthquake. There is a huge project underway to restore it. I say, huge, because not many things are standing on top of each other. I hope all the pieces are there. Like a lot of other ancient ruins, stones and other building materials are often being pillaged to build other things like including private houses. These ruins makes for excellent quarries. Everywhere little groups are being formed where a person would read and expound from the book of Revelations. I saw a French group and a Malaysian group. It's so heartfelt to know that the Bible is still relevant in the lives of people all over the world. This was on top of a hill in Selcuk. Below this hill lies the ruins of the temple of Artemis. "Great is Artemis of Ephesus" is written up in the Acts of the Apostles.

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