Ephesus Ancient City: A Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Metropolis in Türkiye
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very High
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Classical, Medieval
- Civilizations
- Ancient Greek, Aydinid, Byzantine, Lydian, Roman
- Site type
- City
On this page31 sections
History
Ephesus Ancient City is the remains of a major Greek and Roman city near Selçuk in Türkiye, whose Ionian settlement is generally placed in the tenth century BCE. It developed in the former estuary of the Kaystros River and became an administrative, commercial, intellectual, religious, and Christian centre whose history extended from the Neolithic period into the Ottoman era.
Early settlement and the Ionian city
Human occupation in the wider Ephesus area reaches back to the Neolithic period. Çukuriçi Mound and Arvalya Mound preserve evidence of early communities, while the Ayasuluk Hill area was occupied by the Middle Bronze Age. A Mycenaean-period burial ground, dated approximately 1500 to 1400 BCE, was found near the later Basilica of St. John. River sedimentation gradually transformed this landscape. Çukuriçi Mound, once at the southern edge of the estuary, later stood well inland, while the coastline and the position of the harbours shifted repeatedly.
Hittite records refer to Apasa, probably the capital of Arzawa. Some scholars identify Apasa with Ephesus, although the identification remains disputed. Greek tradition attributed the foundation of Ephesus to Androklos, son of the Athenian king Kodros. The Ionian settlement formed part of a much older regional history and included earlier Carian and Lelegian communities. Their religious traditions were combined with the cult of the Greek Artemis and an Anatolian mother-goddess tradition.
The Ionian cities formed a confederacy under the leadership of Ephesus. The earliest fortified settlement stood at Koressos, about 1.2 to 1.5 kilometres west of the Artemision, the sanctuary and temple complex of Artemis. Changes in the coastal environment later caused Koressos to be abandoned or submerged beneath marshland. Ephesus was first governed by kings, then by an aristocratic oligarchy and tyrants. Its later institutions included a council, popular assembly, gerousia, prytaneion, and several magistracies. The gerousia was an aristocratic council of elders, while the prytaneion was a civic building connected with officials and a sacred hearth.
The Cimmerians attacked Ephesus during the seventh century BCE and destroyed an early altar or sanctuary of Artemis. The city nevertheless prospered through maritime trade, agriculture in the Kaystros valley, and routes connecting the coast with the Anatolian interior. Around the middle of the sixth century BCE, King Croesus of Lydia brought Ephesus under Lydian control and contributed substantially to the construction of the Artemision. Under Lydian rule, inhabitants were moved from Koressos toward the sanctuary, partly to weaken the settlement’s defensive position and partly to make room for urban expansion.
Persian rule and the Hellenistic transformation
After Croesus was defeated in 547 BCE, Ephesus came under Persian rule while retaining considerable institutional and religious autonomy. The city joined the Ionian Revolt, the uprising of Ionian cities against Persian authority, and took part in the Battle of Ephesus in 498 BCE. It later joined the Delian League, contributing financial rather than naval support. During the Peloponnesian War, Ephesus initially supported Athens and later sided with Sparta, after which Persian control was restored.
In 395 BCE, the Spartan king Agesilaus II passed through Ephesus during his campaign in Asia Minor and offered assistance for rebuilding the Artemision, which had been damaged by fire during fighting. He had to withdraw before the work could begin. Alexander the Great entered the city in 334 BCE after defeating the Persian forces. When the Persian garrison withdrew, the population killed the pro-Persian tyrant Syrpax and members of his family. Alexander offered to finance the rebuilding of the Artemision, but the Ephesians rejected the proposal, arguing that it was inappropriate for one deity to build a temple for another.
During the Hellenistic period, Ephesus became a major administrative, commercial, intellectual, and cultural centre. Lysimachus, one of Alexander’s generals, founded or refounded a new city in the late fourth or early third century BCE between the Panayır and Bülbül hills. He moved the population away from the older settlement around the Artemision because the old harbours were silting up, marshes were forming, and malaria posed a danger. The new city was also called Arsinoea or Arsinoe after Lysimachus’s wife, Arsinoe II of Egypt, but later resumed the name Ephesus.
After Lysimachus died in 281 BCE, Ephesus passed into the Seleucid sphere and came for periods under Ptolemaic and Attalid control. Following the Treaty of Apamea in 188 BCE, it came under Eumenes II of Pergamon. In 133 BCE, Attalus III bequeathed the Pergamene kingdom to Rome, and Ephesus entered the Roman political sphere. After the suppression of the revolt of Eumenes III, the city became subject to the Roman Republic in 129 BCE.
Roman metropolis
In 88 BCE, Ephesus joined the revolt led by Mithridates VI of Pontus. The massacre known as the Asiatic Vespers killed approximately 80,000 Roman and Italian residents across Asia Minor. Ephesus later changed sides and was punished by Mithridates. After Lucius Cornelius Sulla defeated him, Roman control returned in 86 BCE, and Sulla imposed a heavy indemnity and arrears of taxation.
Mark Antony and Cleopatra stayed at Ephesus in 33 BCE while assembling a fleet before the Battle of Actium. Augustus later made the city the capital of the Roman province of Asia, replacing Pergamon as the principal seat of the proconsul. A proconsul was a senior Roman provincial governor, and this office made Ephesus an important administrative and judicial centre. The city also became a major eastern metropolis associated with commerce, philosophy, and medicine. Population estimates range from approximately 33,600 to 56,000, with some estimates exceeding 70,000. The much higher figure of 225,000 is regarded as unrealistic by more recent demographic studies.
The cult of Artemis remained central to the city. At Ephesus, Artemis combined the character of a Greek goddess with an older Anatolian mother-goddess tradition, rather than appearing principally as the huntress familiar from mainland Greek religion. Her sanctuary drew pilgrims from across the Mediterranean. In 356 BCE, the Artemision was burned by a man traditionally identified as Herostratus and was subsequently rebuilt. Goths sacked and burned it in 262 or 263 CE, damaging Ephesus. The city recovered only partially.
Christian and Byzantine Ephesus
Christianity gained importance during the first centuries CE. The apostle Paul is associated with an extended period in the city, where his preaching provoked opposition from artisans whose livelihood partly depended on producing silver images of Artemis. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians is associated with the local Christian community. Ephesus was one of the seven churches addressed in the Book of Revelation, and the Gospel of John may have been composed there.
Christian tradition identifies Timothy, a companion of Paul, as the first bishop of Ephesus. Traditions also connected the last years or burial of the apostle John with Ephesus and Ayasuluk Hill, making the later Basilica of St. John an important pilgrimage destination. A late-antique tradition associated Mary, the mother of Jesus, with Ephesus. The House of the Virgin Mary, about seven kilometres from the ancient city, became a major Christian pilgrimage site, although the tradition concerning Mary’s residence and death remains disputed.
The Third Ecumenical Council met at the Church of Mary in 431 CE and condemned Nestorius. The council’s recognition of Mary as Theotokos, meaning “Mother of God,” was among its major religious consequences. A second council met at Ephesus in 449, but its proceedings were later rejected at the Council of Chalcedon and became known by its opponents as the “Robber Council.” Pagan cults continued during much of the fourth century, while Christianization led to the suppression, dismantling, or conversion of pagan monuments. Around 400 to 406, the Temple of Hadrian and other pagan monuments were affected by Christian iconoclasm, and the image of Artemis was reportedly destroyed or burned.
Ephesus remained a major Byzantine administrative and ecclesiastical centre, although its political institutions gradually lost authority to imperial and ecclesiastical administrators. A major earthquake or military catastrophe in 614 to 615 caused extensive destruction, including damage to the Terrace Houses. Sediment from the Kaystros continued to fill the harbour and lower city, while Arab attacks in 654 to 655, 700, and 716 accelerated the decline. A further attack in 781 reportedly led to the enslavement and deportation of approximately 7,000 inhabitants.
During the seventh or eighth century, the remaining urban population contracted into a smaller fortified area, and the episcopal and residential centre shifted toward Ayasuluk Hill. Ephesus was associated with the Thracesian Theme and, for a period, with the naval Theme of Samos. It was also known as Hagios Theologos, a name referring to John the Theologian. Seljuk Turks conquered and plundered Ephesus in 1090, but Byzantine control was restored in 1097. The Second Crusade passed through the region in 1147, and in 1206 Ephesus came under the authority of Theodore Laskaris and the Empire of Nicaea.
Late medieval decline and modern archaeology
On 24 October 1304, Ephesus surrendered to Sasa Bey, a Turkish warlord associated with the Menteshe principality. The Church of St. John was pillaged, much of the population was deported to Thyrea, and many remaining inhabitants were killed. Ephesus then passed to the Aydinid principality. Ayasoluk became a significant port and naval base, and the fourteenth century brought a temporary revival under the Aydinids. Isa Bey commissioned the Isa Bey Mosque, while caravansaries, baths, and other public buildings were constructed.
Tamerlane defeated the Ottomans at Ankara in 1402 and occupied Ephesus later that year. Fighting in 1404 burned the city. The Basilica of St. John may have been destroyed at this time, although the circumstances remain uncertain. The region was finally incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1425. The ancient city was completely or almost completely abandoned by the fifteenth century, while Ayasoluk survived as a small Ottoman settlement and was renamed Selçuk in 1914.
Modern investigation began with the British architect and archaeologist John Turtle Wood, who worked at the Artemision from 1863. He identified the sanctuary in 1869 by tracing inscriptions, roads, and the sacred area. His excavations from 1872 to 1874 removed approximately 3,700 cubic metres of sand, soil, and stone, sending about 60 tonnes of architectural and sculptural fragments to the British Museum.
The Austrian Archaeological Institute began systematic excavations at Ephesus in 1895, and Otto Benndorf founded the institute in 1898. Austrian research has led excavation and conservation in the city for more than a century, with interruptions during the world wars and a temporary suspension in 2016. Work resumed in 2018 and increasingly emphasizes conservation, stabilization, and interpretation. Ephesus and its associated components were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2015 under criteria (iii), (iv), and (vi). The serial property covers 662.62 hectares, with a 1,246.3-hectare buffer zone, and includes the settlement sequence from Çukuriçi Mound and Ayasuluk Hill through the ancient city and its later Christian and Islamic remains.
Remains
Ephesus occupies a landscape between the Panayır, Bülbül, and Ayasuluk hills. Its remains include an upper and lower town, harbours, processional streets, civic spaces, residential districts, sanctuaries, and defensive circuits. The ancient harbour basin is now dry and separated from the Aegean coast by several kilometres of alluvial deposits. The visible ruins combine Hellenistic, Roman Imperial, early Christian, Byzantine, Seljuk, Aydinid, and Ottoman phases, with later buildings frequently reusing stone, marble, sculpture, and inscriptions from earlier structures.
Fortifications and sacred landscapes
Lysimachian fortifications
The fortifications associated with Lysimachus enclosed approximately 415 hectares, although the inhabited area was smaller because public buildings, steep slopes, and undeveloped ground occupied part of the circuit. Later Byzantine defenses incorporated earlier structures and reused architectural elements. The fortified settlement at Koressos lay near the former harbour and is now beneath marshy ground.
The Artemision
The Artemision stood in low ground near the ancient coast and was linked to the city by a sacred road. It was included among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, a traditional list of exceptionally renowned monuments known to Greek and Roman writers. The later temple measured approximately 52 by 105 metres, with columns about 18 metres high. Surviving elements include a reconstructed or re-erected column, parts of the podium, architectural fragments, inscriptions, and limited sculptural material.
The sacred precinct, or temenos, was enclosed by a wall associated with Augustus. Bilingual Greek and Latin inscriptions stated that its construction and upkeep were financed from revenues of the Artemision and the Augusteum. Architectural and sculptural elements from the sanctuary were later reused in buildings including the Basilica of St. John and the Isa Bey Mosque.
Public theatres and civic spaces
Great Theatre
The Great Theatre is cut into the slope of Panayır Hill and faces west. It stood at the end of the colonnaded route connecting the harbour with the city centre and accommodated approximately 24,000 to 25,000 spectators. Performances, musical and rhetorical contests, public assemblies, and later Roman gladiatorial combats took place there. Archaeological evidence of a gladiators’ cemetery was found in 2007.
Odeon
The Odeon, or small theatre, was a roofed semicircular building constructed around 150 CE by Publius Vedius Antoninus and his wife. It seated approximately 1,400 to 1,500 people and probably served both as a performance space and as the bouleuterion, the meeting place of the city council.
Agoras and civic buildings
Ephesus had a Lower or Commercial Agora and an Upper or State Agora. The Commercial Agora was surrounded by shops and colonnaded porticoes, redesigned under Caracalla and rebuilt under Theodosius with material taken from other monuments. The Magnesian Gate and adjoining roads formed part of the city’s principal circulation system.
The Prytaneion was a civic and administrative building for the prytanes, official ceremonies, banquets, and receptions. Its rooms were arranged around a sacred hearth associated with Hestia Boulaia. The lower part belongs to the Hellenistic period and the upper part to the Roman period. Excavations produced columns, paving slabs, sculpture, and a statue of Artemis.
Stadium and Gymnasium
The Stadium or Circus lay north of the city near the hills. A gallery and arches supported its northern side, while the southern seating was built into the slope of Mount Lepre. A large arch formed its main entrance. The building hosted athletic competitions and other public spectacles. Nearby, the Gymnasium of Publius Vedius Antoninus was constructed around 160 CE and decorated with fine second-century statues, including an image of the River Kaystros.
Streets, library, and residential quarters
Colonnaded routes and streets
A route of colonnaded streets linked the harbour with the upper city through Via Arcadiana, Marble Street, the Street of the Kouretes, and Procession Street. Marble Street preserves pavements, inscriptions, and sculpted motifs, along with the grave inscription of Mithridates Agrippa, a co-builder of the Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates. The Kouretes were a religious and civic association connected with processions and ceremonies.
Library of Celsus
The Library of Celsus was erected in the early second century CE in memory of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, the Roman proconsul of Asia. His son, Tiberius Julius Aquila, began and financed the construction, which was completed by the mid-second century. Celsus was buried in a sarcophagus beneath the library, which probably held approximately 12,000 scrolls and had an interior measuring about 180 square metres.
The monumental two-storey facade stood on a nine-step podium. Paired columns with Corinthian capitals, ornate portals, windows, pediments, and statues personifying Wisdom, Virtue, Thought, and Knowledge decorated its east-facing front. The orientation probably allowed morning light into the reading rooms. Fire damaged the interior in the third century, while the facade survived longer before earthquake damage and stone removal altered it. The facade was reconstructed especially between 1970 and 1978 with original fragments and copies of elements preserved in museums.
Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates
The Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates stands beside the Library of Celsus and gave access to the Commercial Agora. Two freedmen built it in honour of Augustus and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa.
Terrace Houses
The Terrace Houses, also called the Houses of the Rich, occupy terraces on the slope opposite the Temple of Hadrian. They consist of luxury Roman residences with mosaics, wall paintings, marble panelling, courtyards, and decorated rooms. Terrace House 2 illustrates the lifestyle of affluent Roman inhabitants. Some houses date from the first century BCE or first century CE and continued in use into late antiquity. Excavations began in 1969, and the houses are protected by a modern roof.
Temples, waterworks, and funerary remains
Temple of Hadrian
The Temple of Hadrian dates to the second century CE, with an inscription giving an approximate date of 138. Its Corinthian order, decorated arch, monumental entrance porch, and partly preserved podium for the imperial statue remain visible. The surviving upper reliefs are casts, while the originals are preserved in the Ephesus Archaeological Museum.
Temple of the Sebastoi
The Temple of the Sebastoi, sometimes identified as the Temple of Domitian, was dedicated to the Flavian dynasty. It had a pseudodipteral plan, in which the outer colonnade was omitted while the surrounding space was retained to create the appearance of a double colonnade. The temple had eight columns across the front and thirteen along each side.
Water system and Pollio Tomb and Fountain
Ephesus possessed at least six aqueducts of different sizes. They supplied several districts and powered water mills, including one identified as a marble sawmill. The Pollio Tomb and Fountain was erected in 97 CE in honour of C. Sextilius Pollio, who was associated with construction of the Marnas aqueduct. Its facade is concave.
Via Sacra and Street of Tombs
The Via Sacra, or Street of Tombs, led toward the Artemision and was lined with sarcophagi and other tombs. Examples include sarcophagi decorated with garlands and scenes of Amazonomachy.
Christian, Byzantine, and Islamic remains
Church of Mary
The Church of Mary stood near the harbour and hosted the council of 431. Christian sanctuaries were also installed in or beside earlier pagan monumental complexes, including the southern stoa of the Olympieion.
Basilica of St. John
The Basilica of St. John was built on Ayasuluk Hill during the reign of Justinian I in the sixth century over the traditional location of the apostle’s tomb. The large basilican complex measured approximately 110 metres in length and included multiple domes, columns, mosaics, frescoes, and associated burial structures. The identification of the tomb and additional cross-shaped graves remains uncertain.
Byzantine fortification
The Byzantine fortification on Ayasuluk Hill protected the basilica and the settlement around it. Its South Gate, later called the Gate of Persecutions, incorporated architectural spolia, including fragments of sarcophagi, from the ancient city. The later name resulted from a mistaken interpretation of an ancient scene depicting Achilles.
Isa Bey Mosque
The Isa Bey Mosque was built at Ayasuluk in 1375 for Isa Bey of the Aydinid dynasty. Designed by an architect from Damascus, it measures approximately 57 by 51 metres and includes a courtyard, monumental entrance, two domes, and granite columns. Earlier architectural elements, including columns and capitals from the harbour baths, were reused in the building.
House of the Virgin Mary and the Seven Sleepers
The House of the Virgin Mary is a small stone building about seven kilometres from Ephesus. It has a roughly square plan and has been interpreted in Christian tradition as Mary’s last residence, although that identification is not historically certain. The site associated with the Seven Sleepers includes a cave, a Christian cemetery, and remains of religious buildings. The Seven Sleepers are figures in a late-antique Christian legend, also present in Islamic tradition, who were said to have hidden in a cave during persecution and awakened centuries later.
Stone robbing, reconstruction, anastylosis, and modern stabilizing materials have affected the surviving fabric of some monuments. Anastylosis means re-erecting a ruined building with surviving architectural elements, sometimes supplemented by identifiable modern supports or replacements. Recent conservation has replaced inappropriate earlier materials where possible and has increasingly used reversible techniques. The resulting archaeological landscape preserves the long sequence from Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements to the ancient city and the later community on Ayasuluk Hill.
