Ayasuluk

Ayasuluk stands near ancient Ephesus in western Anatolia, about two kilometers northeast of the ruins of the classical city. Ephesus had once held the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the surrounding plain therefore carried the prestige of a major religious and commercial center. The later settlement inherited that landscape and its routes while shifting its focus to the hill above the ruins. The town's Greek name, Agios Theologos, referred to Saint John the Apostle.

Emperor Justinian I built the sixth-century Basilica of Saint John the Theologian, which some traditions associate with the Apostle's tomb. Procopius described it as a most sacred and honored place in Ephesus. The basilica suffered severe damage during attacks by the Seljuks in 1090 and by the Aydinids and Menteshe in 1308. Ayasoluk became the capital of the Beylik of Aydin in the fourteenth century, and Ibn Battuta praised its congregational mosque.

Ayasuluk Hill later held the İsa Bey Mosque, built in 1375, and the Grand Fortress. The layers of pagan Ephesus, Christian pilgrimage, Islamic architecture, and later town history remain concentrated around this hill.