The Ephesus car park is ringed with çay bahçesis (tea houses), restaurants and souvenir shops, and to the right of the road are the ruins of the Church of the Virgin Mary, also called the Double Church. The original building was a museum, a Hall of the Muses - a place for lectures, teaching and debates. Destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt as a church in the 4th century. Later it served as the site of the third Ecumenical Council (AD 431) which condemned the Nestorian heresy.
Over the centuries several other churches were built here, somewhat obscuring the original layout.
