KIM LAWTON: Sunday morning in Istanbul. Members of Turkey's tiny Christian minority gather for worship carrying on traditions that have been practiced here for nearly two millennia. Turkey may be 99 percent Muslim today, but Christianity has deep roots in this land the New Testament calls Asia Minor, and that history is still literally part of the landscape.

Allen Callahan is a scholar with the Society for Biblical Studies and has visited Turkey several times.

Professor ALLEN CALLAHAN (Society for Biblical Studies): Pound for pound, as it were, we have more remnants of Christian antiquity in Turkey than anywhere else.

LAWTON: After Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem, his followers scattered across the ancient world. What is now called Turkey was a key crossroads between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and the fledgling Christian faith took hold in this Roman province with a rich Greek heritage. One of the most important cities was Ephesus, site of a huge temple to the Greek goddess Artemis.

ALTAY GUR (Tour Guide): A lot of people were coming to visit the temple of Artemis, and that was extremely good for the economic life of the city, which brought Ephesus at that time period as the third biggest city in the world.

LAWTON: Tour guide Altay Gur specializes in early church history. He showed me around Ephesus, which has some of the most extensive and best preserved Roman ruins in the world. One of the most famous views is captured on the Turkish 20 lira bill.

Mr. GUR: On the right side you can see the temple of Hadrian, and you can see the beautiful library of Ephesus, which was the third largest one, and you can see the columns here.

LAWTON: According to biblical tradition, the Apostle Paul lived in Ephesus for perhaps as long as three years, and he used it as a stopping point during his missionary journeys.

Mr. GUR: So these are the streets where Saint Paul was walking 2,000 years ago.

LAWTON: The New Testament Book of Ephesians was addressed to the Christians here, and scholars say Paul wrote several other books of the Bible while staying here.

Mr. GUR: We call this library Celsius library, and Celsius was the Roman governor.

LAWTON (to Mr. Gur): Was this here when the Apostle Paul lived here?

Mr. GUR: Yes, yes it was.

LAWTON: For many tourists, seeing the place firsthand can bring the Bible stories to life.

Prof. CALLAHAN: Especially if one has, really, if one has a guidebook in one hand, the Book of Acts in the other, you can creatively connect the dots.

LAWTON: A case in point, the 24,000-seat theater. The Book of Acts in the New Testament tells the story of a riot against the Apostle Paul, which took place in this amphitheatre. It was instigated by a silversmith named Demetrius who made small figurines of the goddess Artemis. He was worried that Paul's preaching about Christianity could threaten his business, and he began a riot that ended up here with the townspeople in this amphitheatre. The Bible says Paul left Ephesus shortly after that.

The Ephesus area was also important for another early Church leader, Saint John, known in the Bible as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." Although some scholars disagree, tradition holds that John presided over the churches of Asia Minor and died here of old age. In the sixth century, Byzantine Emperor Justinian built a massive basilica over the place where Christians say John is buried. Much of it still stands.

Mr. GUR: So now we are on the way to the house of Mother Mary.

LAWTON: John is also connected to another Church tradition that ties the Virgin Mary to Turkey. Some Christians, especially Catholics, believe Mary accompanied John to Asia Minor and spent her last days in a small house outside Ephesus. That belief is based on a story in the Gospel of John that puts Mary and the disciple at the foot of the cross.

Prof. CALLAHAN: These two are together in that poignant moment, and Jesus says from the cross, "Mother behold your son," then turns to the beloved disciple and says, "Son behold your mother." He entrusts his mother to the care of the beloved disciple, this disciple whom he loves.

LAWTON: The Bible says from then on John took Mary into his home, but it doesn't say where. Sister Antonia Velasco lives on the grounds and believes it was here.

Sister ANTONIA VELASCO: It's known that Saint John was in Ephesus, that he wrote the Gospel here, and that's how we believe that Mary was somewhere in the zone here, and then you have to believe in faith that she was here.

LAWTON: Many other Catholics believe Mary was taken into heaven from Jerusalem. But the Turkish tradition gained popularity after an eighteenth-century nun who never left Germany said she saw Mary's last house in some mystical visions. Her descriptions matched this house, which had long been revered by local Christians. Sister Antonia says the place has a peace that she believes suits Mary.

Sister ANTONIA: Imagining her overlooking the ocean, with all of her memories of the life of Christ here, contemplating, you know, contemplating and praying over what she had lived through.

LAWTON: The New Testament does talk about many other early church leaders who lived and worked in Asia Minor. In addition to the Book of Ephesians, the books of Galatians and Colossians were written to congregations here. A host of other cities in Turkey make biblical appearances as well, if only as an aside.

The city of Hierapolis is only mentioned once in the New Testament. In the Book of Colossians, Paul speaks briefly about the early church leaders' concern for the Christians here.

Asia Minor also plays a prominent role in the apocalyptic Book of Revelation, which is addressed to seven churches, all of them in what is now Turkey. One was Laodicea. Christians here were rebuked for being lukewarm. In contrast to Ephesus, only a little excavation has been done on this vast site.

Christianity flourished after Emperor Constantine officially recognized the religion in the year 313. Seven ecumenical church councils met here to formalize foundational doctrines of the faith. Among them, the influential Council of Nicea in 325, which established the creed still recited in churches around the world.

Prof. CALLAHAN: The decisions of those councils, the sort of intellectual fruit of those councils, remain with us today.

LAWTON: Constantine proclaimed Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, the new capital of the Holy Roman Empire in 330, and the city remained a center of global Christianity until it was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453. Callahan says the lingering remnants provide both inspiration and caution.

Prof. CALLAHAN: Life among the ruins can be sobering. So many people invested so much time, effort, energy, and wealth into the architectural expressions of their faith and their commitments, and most of those expressions are in various states of decay.

LAWTON: Many visitors are surprised Turkey hasn't done more to excavate and develop its Christian holy sites. Callahan says it's been a complicated issue for predominantly Muslim Turkey.

Prof. CALLAHAN: A government or a society sees itself as standing in one tradition. But it sees all around it the remnants, the residue, of another tradition with which it's had an ambivalent relationship. So, what to do about those?

LAWTON: And there is the always challenging question of finances.

Mr. GUR: Even the U.S. government could not finance the excavations in Turkey, because we have more than 4,000 ancient sites in Turkey, and the economy of Turkey compared to the U.S. is very little.

LAWTON: Gur urges others to step in and help.

Mr. GUR: I believe that these ruins here belong to you as much as it belongs to me because these are world heritage, so it belongs to us all.

LAWTON: It's vital, he says, that this history not be lost forever.

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