The House of the Virgin Mary, known in Turkish as Meryem Ana Evi, is a modest chapel on the slopes above Selçuk in İzmir Province. It is commonly visited with ancient Ephesus, about seven kilometres away, but it is a separate place with its own religious history. The setting is not a surviving palace or a grand basilica: the focus is a small stone building that Christians venerate as the home where Mary spent her final years.
That identification belongs to religious tradition, not to a simple archaeological verdict. The Vatican has described the shrine as an ancient chapel enclosing a cottage that, according to tradition, the Apostle John built for Mary after taking her to Ephesus. UNESCO also identifies the nearby chapel as a Christian pilgrimage destination. These institutional descriptions explain why people come; they should not be read as proof that archaeologists have established Mary’s personal residence there.