Dormouse Cave of Ephesus
Coordinates: 37 ° 56 ′ 37 ″ N , 27 ° 21 ′ 13 ″ E
The Dormouse Cave of Ephesus is a complex of an extensive necropolis and a church, which is located on the northeast side of the Panayır Dağı mountain near the ancient city of Ephesus near Selçuk in the Turkish province of İzmir . According to legend, this was the cave in which the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus slept for 200 years and thus escaped the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius .
According to this legend, the Christian Emperor Theodosius II , in whose reign 401-450 the seven young men woke up and then died peacefully, had the church built over the cave, which is now in ruins. It was a domed church with an apse and niches and tombs in all the walls, under the floor of which there is a series of catacombs . The ceiling and walls of the church bear traces of relief - ornaments and paintings. A nearby crevice and a room equipped with a barrel vault are considered the burial place of the Seven Sleepers. There are numerous grave sites of various kinds, wall graves , sarcophagi , burial chambers and mausoleums in the area . The district was a place of pilgrimage in Byzantine times , Christian pilgrims laid down in their wills, perhaps in the hope of resurrection to be buried there. On the walls are intercession addressed to the seven youths .
In the course of research in Ephesus, the Austrian Archaeological Institute carried out excavations there in 1927 and uncovered the buildings that are now visible. The finds can be seen in the tomb finds room in the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk.
Ceiling decorations
Painting remains
Church interior and catacombs
Burial place
literature
- The Coemeterium of the Seven Sleepers. Research in Ephesus Vol. 4, 2. Baden near Vienna 1937.
- Marianne Mehling (Hrsg.): Knaur's cultural guide in color Turkey. Droemer-Knaur, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-426-26293-2 , p. 197.
- Norbert Zimmermann : The seven-sleeper cemeterium in Ephesus. In: Annual Issues of the Austrian Archaeological Institute 80, 2011, pp. 407–465.
