Ephesus

The name Ephesus has belonged to several places over the centuries. The marble streets, theatre and library that most people picture are the Hellenistic and Roman city Lysimachus built in a valley between two hills¹². UNESCO’s listing reaches further, to four areas: the prehistoric mound of Çukuriçi, the ancient city itself, Ayasuluk hill with the site of the Artemision and its medieval remains, and the House of the Virgin Mary¹³.

It was large and rich. Strabo, writing under Augustus or Tiberius, called it the biggest trading centre in Asia on this side of the Taurus¹⁴. Its population is argued over: the older literature gives 200,000 or more¹⁵, while a recent demographic model arrives at about 71,600¹⁶. By the 2nd century AD, in Walter Scheidel’s ranking, it was one of the five biggest cities of the Greek and Roman world¹⁷.

Ephesus is in western Turkey, in the lower valley of the Küçük Menderes, the river the Greeks called the Kaystros¹⁸. The site has ticket offices at a northern and a southern gate, both shown in the Ephesus route schematic¹⁹. Kuşadası’s cruise port is roughly 19 km away by road²⁰, and İzmir’s airport about 62 km²¹.

For a harbour city it now sits oddly far inland, with its old harbour basin reduced to a marshy lake²². The river’s silt is to blame: over thousands of years it has driven the coastline away from Ephesus²³.

No single spot can claim to be the whole of Ephesus. The first villagers lived at Çukuriçi Höyük⁸. In the Late Bronze Age the hill of Ayasuluk was probably Apaša, the capital of Arzawa known from Hittite texts²⁴. Strabo says the Greek town came down from the mountainside to the temple of Artemis in the time of Croesus²⁵.

The Ephesus of today dates from the early 3rd century BC, when Lysimachus forced the population into a new walled city¹². The old harbour was silting up, while the new bay still had deep water²⁶. Much later the movement ran the other way, and settlement drifted back to fortified Ayasuluk, though parts of the old city were still lived in until the 12th century²⁷.

The history of Ephesus runs from the Neolithic to the Ottomans. A few markers give its shape:

1. c. 6700 BCFirst settlement at Çukuriçi Höyük⁸
2. c. 560 BCCroesus of Lydia takes the city²⁸
3. 356 BCHerostratus burns the Temple of Artemis²⁹
4. 334 BCAlexander the Great takes Ephesus from the Persians³⁰
5. Early 3rd century BCLysimachus refounds the city on its present site⁹
6. 133 BCAttalus III leaves his kingdom to Rome³¹
7. 260s ADEarthquake and Gothic raids³²
8. 431 and 449Two church councils meet at Ephesus³³
9. Mid-6th centuryJustinian builds the Basilica of St John³⁴
10. 1304The town surrenders to Turkish forces³⁵
11. 1375The İsa Bey Mosque is built³⁶
12. 1869John Turtle Wood finds the Temple of Artemis³⁷
13. 1895Austrian excavations begin⁷
14. 2015World Heritage listing⁶

The ancient city is best experienced as a slow walk downhill. From the Hercules Gate, Curetes Street drops through the valley to the Library of Celsus³⁸, built in honour of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, whose vaulted tomb chamber lies beneath it³⁹. Its two-storey façade plays a trick of scale: the pedestals under the lower columns grow taller towards the edges, so the front looks bigger than it is⁴⁰. An earthquake probably brought it down in the 10th or 11th century⁴¹, and between 1970 and 1978 it was re-erected from its own blocks⁴². The building has never left Ephesus⁴³; only the originals of its four statues went to Vienna, and copies fill the niches now⁴⁴.

Marble Street leads on from the library towards the theatre⁴⁵. The Great Theatre is the one named in Acts, where the crowd shouted for Artemis during the silversmiths’ riot⁴⁶. How many it held is disputed: the Austrian excavators reckon about 20,000 after the Roman enlargement, fewer than the 24,000 or 25,000 given in many other sources⁴⁷.

On the slope above Curetes Street, the Terrace Houses are a block of Roman homes covering about 4,000 m²⁴⁸, divided into seven residences⁴⁹. Their wall paintings of the 2nd and 3rd centuries are the largest group of their kind from the Roman East⁵⁰, and a protective roof has sheltered them since 1999/2000⁵¹.

Across the street stands the Temple of Hadrian, dedicated by Publius Quintilius Valens Varius to Artemis of Ephesus, the emperor and the people⁵². The scholars who have studied it are not agreed that it was a temple of Hadrian at all⁵³. A little further down Curetes Street is the Octagon, an eight-sided tomb⁵⁴ long claimed for Cleopatra’s sister Arsinoe IV; a DNA study published in 2025 showed that its skeleton belonged to a boy aged between 11 and 14⁵⁵⁵⁶.

The Temple of Artemis made Ephesus famous across the ancient world. Antipater of Sidon put it on his list of wonders, saying that beside it the others lost their brilliance⁴. Pliny credited the later temple with 127 columns, each the gift of a king⁵⁷. Modern reconstructions cannot fit that many; the most recent argues for 109 at most⁵⁸.

Its site was lost until John Turtle Wood reached the remains on the last day of 1869, some 6 m down³⁷. The lone column there today was reassembled from fragments that did not all come from the same original column⁵⁹. Stone from the temple did end up in later buildings nearby, the Basilica of St John among them⁶⁰, but the story that Hagia Sophia has columns from Ephesus is a medieval legend⁶¹.

The goddess worshipped here was not quite the Greek huntress. From late antiquity the rows of oval shapes on the chest of the Ephesian Artemis were read as breasts; modern scholars reject that reading or call it unproven, and propose ornaments, amber pendants or regalia instead⁶². Two celebrated Roman statues of her, found in the city’s town hall in 1956, are now in the museum at Selçuk⁶³.

Acts has Paul teaching at Ephesus for more than two years, first in the synagogue and then in the hall of Tyrannus⁵, and it was from Ephesus that he wrote 1 Corinthians⁶⁴. Paul’s time in Ephesus left one tradition without a text behind it: the tower called “St Paul’s Prison”, since nothing in Acts puts him in jail in the city⁶⁵. Of the seven letters in Revelation, the first goes to the church of Ephesus⁶⁶.

Among the sacred sites of Ephesus, St John’s rests on a tradition recorded from the late 2nd century, which holds that the apostle lived and died here⁶⁷. In the mid-6th century Justinian raised a great domed church over his traditional grave on Ayasuluk hill, the Basilica of St John³⁴. The city also gave its name to the council of 431, which confirmed Mary as Theotokos, the "God-bearer"⁶⁸.

The House of the Virgin Mary, on the mountain south of the ancient city, was identified through the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich, a German nun whose words Clemens Brentano recorded⁶⁹. Its excavator put the chapel in the 13th century, on older foundations⁷⁰. The Catholic Church has made no ruling on whether Mary lived or died there, but it allows and encourages pilgrimage⁷¹. Paul VI came in 1967, John Paul II in 1979 and Benedict XVI in 2006⁷²⁷³⁷⁴. Muslims come to pray as well: Maryam is revered in Islam, and a side room has held Qur’anic verses about her since the 1980s⁷⁵.

The places around Ephesus begin with Selçuk, the town that carried on the city’s life on and below Ayasuluk hill²⁷. The hilltop holds a Byzantine fortress as well as St John’s basilica⁷⁶, and at its foot is the İsa Bey Mosque, which an architect from Damascus built in 1375 for an Aydınid ruler³⁶. Up in the hills 8 km east of Selçuk is the village of Şirince⁷⁷, and 14 km north-east of Ephesus stands the early Hellenistic Mausoleum of Belevi⁷⁸.

Because both gates have ticket offices, a visit to Ephesus can run in either direction through the site¹⁹. Summer is hard going. July and August bring average daily highs near 35 °C, with 17 or 18 days in each month reaching that mark⁷⁹. Nearly all the year’s rain falls between October and April⁸⁰, and the shoulder seasons are gentler, with average highs of about 26 °C in May and 24 °C in October⁸¹.

Prices and hours change often, and tickets and opening hours dates every figure it gives. Selçuk’s railway station is a 3.5 km walk from the Lower Gate⁸², close enough to make the train a practical way of getting to Ephesus. Guiding in Turkey is restricted to licensed tourist guides with a working card⁸³, and a guide’s licence can be checked in their union’s public database⁸⁴.

Ephesus has gathered its share of myths, and what guidebooks get wrong takes them monument by monument. Six that the evidence does not support:

• “The library was moved abroad.” It stands on its own foundations; statues from it went to Vienna⁴³.
• “The Octagon holds Cleopatra’s sister.” The remains are those of a boy⁸⁵.
• “The Octagon skull was lost in the Second World War.” It sat in a University of Vienna collection all along⁸⁶.
• “Paul preached in the theatre.” In the Acts account his friends kept him from going in⁸⁷.
• “Lysimachus built the theatre.” The excavators date its beginnings to the 2nd century BC, long after his death⁸⁸.
• “Hagia Sophia’s columns came from the Temple of Artemis.” A medieval legend⁶¹.

Factual statements carry numbered references. Historical claims require at least two independent sources; changing visitor information may use the issuing authority’s own notice. Where scholars disagree, the page gives the range and says so. Prices and opening hours show the date they were last checked. Who writes the site, how sources are chosen and how to report an error are explained in about and method.