Turkey is known across the globe as a popular wedding destination with a captivating blend of historic and contemporary offerings from the East and West.

Tens of thousands of couples from all across the world choose to come to Turkey for their lifelong “Big Day.”

Idyllic sites, great cities, a great choice of luxurious and romantic hotels, royal palaces by the Bosphorus, resorts, and beautiful beaches… There is nowhere better to celebrate and to make your dreams come true.

Turkey has everything you need in the entire wedding process from tailor-made bridal designers to luxury fashion goods and artisan jewelers. Destination management companies and event planners cater to every culture, tradition, and requests, create flower arrangements, and everything wedding related. Top-of-the-line professionals guarantee the best catering services with superb varieties of local Turkish food and mouthwatering international cuisines.

All regions have their unique characteristics and range of options offering culture, history, nature, hospitality, gastronomy, and elegance. The most preferred wedding destinations in Turkey are İstanbul, Antalya, Bodrum, Cappadocia, and Fethiye. There are many potential venues for an unforgettable wedding in Turkey from luxurious settings on the Bosphorus in İstanbul, fine dining in caves and wine-tasting tours with views of the colorful hot-air balloons in Cappadocia, the turquoise of the sea and the deep-orange sunsets of the Mediterranean Sea, and the lush foliage of Turkey’s Aegean coasts.

via: goturkey

This enclosure for archaeological remains at Ephesus elegantly reconciles historic conservation with accessibility for visitors. The site of a succession of great ancient civilizations, Ephesus, on the south-west coast of modern Turkey, embodied a peculiarly fertile synthesis of architecture and culture. In 356BC the Greeks built the Artemesium (a colossal Ionic temple dedicated to Artemis the fertility goddess) which was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. During the 2nd century BC, Ephesus was the fourth largest city in the eastern Roman Empire, famous for its Artemesium, the Library of Celsus and its medical school.

Quoted from Catherine Slessor’s Housing History.

Ephesus; Ancient Greek city of Asia Minor, near the mouth of the Menderes River, in what is today West Turkey, South of Smyrna (now Izmir). One of the greatest of the Ionian cities, it became the leading seaport of the region. Its wealth was proverbial. The Greek city was near an old center of worship of a native nature goddess, who was equated with the Greek Artemis, and c.550 B.C. a large temple was built. To this Croesus, who captured the city, contributed.

When Lydians attacked their cities, Ephesians defended themselves by tying a rope from The Temple of Artemis. But it was not a good way to defend a city. Croesus of Lydia captured it easily however he did not destroy. The city reached the “Golden Age” and became a good model to the Antic World in culture and art, as well. Building of the Artemission was going on.Croesus had a great respect to Artemis and he donated 36 columns with sculptures in relief. Some parts of these sculptures are in the British Museum today.

From Lydian control Ephesus passed to the Persian Empire. The temple was burned down in the 4th cent. B.C., but rebuilding was begun before Alexander the Great took Ephesus in 334. The city continued to thrive during the wars of his successors, and after it passed (133) to the Romans it kept its hegemony and was the leading city of the province of Asia. The great temple of Artemis, or Artemis, called by the Romans the temple of Diana, was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. From c.100 B.C. to c. A.D. 100 Ephesus was the world capital of the slave trade.

Ephesus

The city was sacked by the Goths in A.D. 262, and the temple was destroyed. The seat of a church council in 431, Ephesus was abandoned after the harbor silted up. Excavations (1869-74) of the ruins of the temple brought to light many artifacts. Later excavations uncovered important Roman and Byzantine remains.

Quoted from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

In a Christian version of a widespread story, martyrs immured in a cave near Ephesus during the persecutions by Decius (c.250). Long afterward, in the 5th cent., they awoke (as from sleep) and were taken before Theodosius II, Roman emperor of the east. Their story reassured the emperor, who had been wavering in his faith. The youths returned to their cave, to sleep again until Judgment. The story, thought to be of Syrian origin, was popularized by Gregory of Tours. Feast: July 27.

Quoted from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.

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