//
Ayasuluk hill was the original site of Ephesus. The fortifications you now see were built in the 7th century against Arab raids, and the citadel continued in use until the entire site was wrecked by the Mongols under Tamerlane in 1402 AD. The basilica is older, completed in 565 AD over the site of a chapel and grave of St John the Apostle. He is believed to have died in Ephesus towards 100 AD: he wrote three New Testament Epistles and is traditionally credited as the author of St John's Gospel. (He isn't the author of Revelation, by the later St John of Patmos.) The site was partly reconstructed in the 21st century.
Ayasuluk Hill is an ancient mound in İzmir Province in Turkey. It forms part of the Ephesus UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is home to a Byzantine fortress and the ruins of the Basilica of St John. It was reputedly the tomb of John the Apostle, the cousin and early disciple of Jesus who is thought to have written the Gospel of John on the site. It became the main settlement of Ephesus after the ancient town declined after the 7th century, following the onset of the Arab–Byzantine wars.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
This is east side of Ephesus but not within the ticketed area. It's a series of catacombs, part of the Roman city necropolis - only the highest nobles were buried within city limits. The area is free to access but a gate bars entry to the tombs. They were excavated in 1927 and findings are now in the Selçuk Ephesus museum. There's little to see here, the main attraction is the legend of the "Seven Sleepers", true believers who hid or were immured here circa 250 AD in a time of religious persecution. They re-emerged 300 years later, blinking in the sunlight to find Christianity blossomed into the official Roman religion, occasion for hallelujahs and high-fives. But these guys slept around - Ephesus is just one of seven sites with the same legend, from China to Tunisia. Best documented is the cave in al-Rajib district of Amman, Jordan, where according to the Surah al-Kahf (18th book of the Qur'an) the seven were accompanied by a dog, the one thing you will see here.