Ephesus, Selcuk, Turkey

We walked, and walked, and walked exploring everything that Ephesus has to offer.
The sun was shining, we were feeling fit, and we thoroughly enjoyed the few hours we spent wandering round the ancient city of Ephesus.
When we first arrived it was quite peaceful, but within an hour or so the visitor numbers increased as coach tours of tourists arrived.
Despite it being busy, and quite noisy, with people intent on photographing and videoing the site, and tour guides shouting information at their holidaymakers, we could easily imagine what life was like all those years ago when Ephesus was thriving.

Ephesus is located on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey. It was once an ancient Greek city, later a major Roman city.
Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 people during the Roamn period in the 1st century BC, making it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean.
Its busy seaport transported goods from Asia to Greece, Italy, and beyond.

Ephesus was famed for the Temple of Artemis, which was completed in approximately 550 BC. The Temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The temple was destroyed in 401 AD by a mod led by St. John Chrysostom. And later in 614 AD an earthquake caused the town to be partially destroyed.
As silt from the Cayster River slowly built up in the harbour, Ephesus’ importance as a thriving commercial centre declined.

Video of Ephesus – Part 1

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Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are mentioned in the Book of Revelation. The city was the site of several 5th century Christian Councils, and there was also a gladiators’ graveyard.

Ephesus contains the largest collection of Roman ruins in the Eastern Mediterranean. Only about 15% has been excavated thus far.
The names of the ruins allude to Ephesus’ grand past. The theatre was located in a commanding position looking down Harbor Street, leading to the silted-up harbour.

One of the most recognisable buildings at Ephesus is the Library of Celsus. Its image is reporiduced on everything from postcards and teatowels to adverts travel agenst adverts.
The façade of the Library of Celsus has been thoughtfully reconstructed using all original pieces. The library was apparently originally built in memory of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, the ancient Greek who served as governor of Roman Asia in the Roman Empire.

Video of Ephesus – Part 2

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It is believed that Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus financed the construction of the library with his own money, which was mainly built by his son Gaius Julius Aquila, and was once home to 12,000 scrolls. The building faces East, so that the morning light illuminated the reading rooms. The facade of the Library of Celsus is very impressive.
Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus was buried in a sarcophagus beneath the library.

Another impressive structure at Ephesus is the Theatre.
During our visit there was lots of reconstruction work going on, so much of the top tiers were cordoned off, which is probably just as well as it saved us a walk. We did go up as far as we could though, to try and take in the sheer magnitude of the place. It’s massive.
Apparently the Theatre at Ephesus had an estimated seating capacity of 44,000, and is thought to be the largest outdoor theatre in the ancient world.
Understandably the Theatre was very popular whilst we were there, it was full of people, well, not quite full, I don’t think there were exactly 44,000 of us tourists there, but there was quite a lot of us.

Whilst at Ephesus we also saw the Terrace Houses.
During our visit they looked to be undergoing major restorations, with several people busily working away carefully sorting and cleaning floor mosaics to be relaid, marble wall panels being cleaned, and wall paintings being touched up. All very impressive.
It was nice and peaceful wandering round looking at the Terrace Houses. It seemed that only independent travellers were viewing them, no coach tours of people, which was good.

Video of Ephesus, Turkey. The Terraced Houses

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The Terrace Houses at Ephesus are located on the hill, opposite the Hadrian Temple.
They are protected from the elements by an impressive structure, a canopy with lots of ventilations, and glass gangways for visitors to walk on to view everything.
The Terrace Houses, also referred to as the Houses of the Rich, are interesting examples of family life during the Roman period.
They were designed and constructed according to the Hippodamian plan of the city, in which roads transected each other at right angles.
There are six residential units on three terraces at the lower end of the slope of the Bulbul Mountain. The oldest building dates back into the 1 century BC and is thought to have been used as a family residence until the 7 century AD.
The majority of the houses would originally have been two storey properties, but the upper levels have long since collapsed.
The found floors were where the dining rooms were, they led to the hall. Upstairs was, much the same as today’s house, where the bedrooms were.
The houses would have had courtyards in the middle, with an open ceiling.
Clays pipes behind the walls, and underneath the floors of the Terrace Houses would have moved hit air throughout the houses to heat them, much like the heating system used in the baths. The Terrace Houses would have also had hot and cold water.
There were no windows in the rooms, the only illumination they had was from the light coming from the open ceiling in the hall.
The excavations of the Terrace Houses at Ephesus began in 1960.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Ephesus.
We paid 25 Turkish Lire each entrance fee for the main site at Ephesus, and an extra 15 Turkish Lire to see inside the covering for the reconstruction of the Terrace Houses. We thought the Terrace Houses were definitely worth the extra money. And it’s well worth visiting Turkey just to explore Ephesus.

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