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Rock-Cut Chapel

Grotto (Cave) of St. Paul, Ephesus

GROT-oh of saint PAWL · Modern Bülbüldağ, Selçuk, İzmir Province, Turkey · 37.9380° N, 27.3290° E

A narrow rock-cut chapel on the slope of Bülbüldağ (Nightingale Mountain) above the Great Theatre, venerated since at least the 4th-6th century AD as a place associated with the apostle Paul's time in Ephesus (cf. Acts 19-20; 1 Corinthians 16:8). Its walls preserve the only known ancient depiction of Paul at Ephesus, showing him seated with a book alongside Thecla and her mother Theocleia — a scene drawn from the 2nd-century apocryphal Acts of Paul and Thecla rather than from the canonical New Testament text itself. Coordinates given are approximate — the site is not open to the public and lacks a precisely published GPS location.

Archaeology

The grotto's principal fresco was uncovered under later plaster layers and dated by Dr. Renate Pillinger (University of Vienna) to the late 5th or early 6th century AD; additional paintings and over 500 graffiti/inscriptions span the 4th through 12th-13th centuries. Because the fresco illustrates the non-canonical Acts of Paul and Thecla rather than an episode from Acts of the Apostles, its NT connection is devotional/traditional rather than a direct excavated confirmation of a specific biblical event. The cave remains closed to the general public to protect the fragile paintings.