As a port metropolis and the capital of the ancient age, whose importance as a trade city began to increase during the time of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome, Ephesus is probably the most important ancient ruins in Turkey.
So much so that Ephesus was an ancient city that can be seen rarely even in the world, from its magnificent architectural structures to its incredible stories and to the important statesmen and philosophers of the period it raised. This beautiful place is so big that you have to devote at least 3-4 hours even to visit the 20 percent of the revealed excavations since 1893 so far.
From Apasa to Ephesus
The history of Ephesus is really old, dating back almost 7000 BC, but the name of the city comes from the warrior Amazon women. It is thought to come from Apasa, the city of the kingdom of Arzava (Land of Forests) which was founded in the 2000 B.C.
Although the first periods of the city are not well known, until the port became useless, which was the most important feature of the city, local people have always existed here and the city sometimes grew and sometimes shrunk due to invasions or migrations from the neighbouring kingdoms or cities.
This harbor was an artificial harbor formed by the water of the Menderes river and was connected to the sea and began to fill with the alluvium carried by the river over time, causing the commercial power of Ephesus to weaken. As the commercial power of Ephesus decreased, its political power decreased too. And it collapsed rapidly after that along with natural factors.
Ionia, the Land of Earthquakes
The most important of the natural factors that caused the collapse of Ephesus is of course the earthquakes in the region, which they thought that were created by Poseidon, the god of the sea and earthquakes. The city experienced a big earthquake in the 3rd century and it was heavily destroyed, but it could recoverd in a short time.
Poseidon, the brother of Zeus, although being actually a sea god, was thought to have created earthquakes and storms too. He was believed to hit the ground with his trident,to create earthquakes and dark clouds over the sea. That’s why he was one of the most important gods of the pagan Roman.
When you see the symbols of Poseidon in this area, a the three-headed spear or a dolphin, you can be sure that they were graved there as an amulet to protect the building from earthquakes.
As being located on a very active fault, Ephesus, like many ancient cities, was affected by earthquakes throughout its life. The only advantage of this situation is that hot and cold water fountains are abundant due to the fault line and it facilitates the establishment of cities in this region. The Temple of the Apollo in Didim, which is very close to Ephesus, was also built thanks to these fault lines. You can find more details in our video “The Temple Which Foretells Your Future” about the Temple of Apollo, one of the three most important temples of antiquity.
Religious Beliefs
Ephesus slowly fell under the influence of Christianity with the preaching and missionary works of Saint Paul in the 60s AD, until it was forced to adopt the Catholic faith in the 380s with the impositions of Theodosius. Until the Catholic imposition, the pagan belief was the most common religion among the people of Ephesus, and Artemis was the most important goddess of fertility, hunting, birth, epidemics, water and things related to them.
Women were given great importance with the influence of Artemis, the most respected goddess in the region. Even the keystones on some of the arches were engraved with female figures to imply that the women were in the middle of life and that everything would dissipate if they were pulled out of the daily life.
You can click here for our Artemis video, in which you will be able to find detailed information about the precious mother goddess of the Ephesus region, whose features were transferred to the Virgin Mary in the following centuries. The fact that the most important character of Christianity was the Virgin Mary, accelerated the conversion of the people in this region where the mother goddess cult was respected so much while the acceptance of the trinity in the Niceae Consul made it much easier for pagan people to adopt Christianity and many churches were built in the city afterwards. The most important of these is the Virgin Mary church on Bülbül Mountain, where the Virgin Mary, who was brought here by the Apostle John, was believed to had lived here until she died and was taken to heaven. In fact, there is no evidence that the Virgin Mary lived in this area, it is thought to be the house of the Virgin Mary based on the visions (what she saw in her dreams) of a Catholic nun who lived in the 19th century. Since such views are given importance in the Catholic sect, the church, which is found with the views of the nun, is considered to be the house where Mary lived until her death, and this place became a pilgrimage place for the Catholic sect. It is believed that Mary was buried on this mountain by the way.
Paul, who was known as Saul of Tarsus in the early periods of Christianity and who devoted himself to the destruction of Christianity, was a quite important apostle to spread Christianity to Europe, stayed in Ephesus for a few years for the Christianization of the region. However, both because the merchants and jewelers who made good income from the sale of Artemis figurines were uncomfortable with the new religion and the people did not want to abandon their old religion, Paul was expelled from Ephesus by the people among the shoutings “Artemis of Ephesus is the Almighty” after his last sermon.
Artemis of Ephesus
One of the most important factors in the enrichment of the region is the goddess Artemis and her famous temple. Namely; the pagans who came from neighboring countries to perform their religious rituals and become pilgrims was an important source of income for the city. The goldsmiths of Ephesus have obtained great wealth from the statues of Artemis alone. Of course, when the influence of Christianity began to increase in the region, those people made the highest noise.
The goddess of many things such as the moon, fertility and hunting and in the same time Apollo’s twin sister Artemis was the most important religious character in the region for centuries. Her temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient age, was built circa B.C. 500, was also served as a credit-lending bank and hosted guests who want to be pilgrims from many distant countries to the region and contributed greatly to the commercial enrichment of the region. Just like today in many countries. You can watch our youtube video where we tell the mysteries of the Beautiful Artemis and the Great Artemis in the Ephesus Museum because there are so many things to say about Artemis.
The End of Ephesus
Ephesus, which was destroyed by earthquakes many times over the centuries but rose again and again, gradually began to lose its power losing its connection to the sea due to the alluvium brought by the Menderes (Meander) river to the harbour. The city, which retreated towards the Ayasuluk hill to be protected from earthquakes, gradually moved farther away from the sea and became a place where only the homeless lived in time and was captured by Aydınogulları, who came to the region in the 14th century. This region, which was used as a capital with the name of “Ayasuluk” by Aydınoğulları was transformed into “Selcuk” by the Union and Progress Party in the 19th century, after being used with the same name in the Ottoman period. The region is still called as Selcuk (Sellchook).
Places to See in the Ancient City of Ephesus
It is worth mentioning that Ephesus has two entrances. The first one is close to the Celsus library and if you enter from here, you go up the Curetes Street on a gentle ramp after the Harbour Street and the Grand Theater and the Celsus library leaving the Celcus Library view behind you. But dont wory you will see this beautiful view while you return.
But if you start from the other entrance above, even though the places at the first entrance are not very fancy, you can explore the city with a more comfortable route and the magnificent view of the Celsus library as you go down.
1. Harbor Street
This street, which was connected to the artificial harbor of Ephesus, is a very wide avenue that you will encounter first when you enter from the lower entrance and the people who come to Ephesus by sea in old ages entered the city. Around it, there is a bathhouse, which is presented as a gift to newcomers to clean up, and a market square (the agora, the most crowded place in the city) The street was illuminated with oil lamps at night, who knows how beautiful it looked. You can progress to a certain point now on the street. Today there are olive trees where the harbor was located. When you move towards the other side of the street, you encounter the great theater. It is called the great theater because there are two theaters in the city, the other is in the form of an amphitheater too, but it was not used as a theater, it is called as the small theater. We’ll come back there later.
2. The Great Theater
As if to show its grandeur to those who entered the city from the harbor, The Great Theater, which hosted approximately 25,000 people, welcomes you right at the end of the Harbor Street, where Saint Paul, who tried to spread Christianity in the region with his sermons, was expelled from the city with the shouts of “Artemis of Ephesus is the Greatest”.
This magnificent theater, in which many festivals were held, such as gladiator fights and Dionysus festivals, was built with many things in mind, such as the direction of the wind blowing, to carry the voices of those on the stage even to those who sit at the top. According to the capacity of the theater, it is thought that approximately 250,000 people lived in the city at the time, ten tiems of the capacity This is a general calculation, if you want to find the population of an ancient city, you have to multiply the theater capacity by 10 to reach the population approximately.
3. The Marble Road and The World’s First Advertisement
This road is one of the main roads where sacred processions passed and used by cars during religious ceremonies, and another remarkable feature is the sidewalk on the sides of the road, which is designed for pedestrians.But the most striking part of this road is the world’s first advertisement waiting for you on the right side of the marble road leading from the Grand Theater towards the Celsus library. This advertisement, which consists of the head of Artemis, a heart and a left footprint, said to the sailors who came to the city from long distances, that on the left side of road, women would make their heart happy. In other words, this ad directed those who came to Ephesus for the first time to the city’s love house, a brothel. It is also said that this love house was connected with the scholastic bathhouse at the entrance of the city and had a secret passage to the Celsus library.
4. And the Celsus Library…
This awesome library which was built by C. Julius Aquila in the name of his father, the Asian Proconsuli in the 100’s is just next to the Agora, the open air market and one of the most important features of this magnificent structure is that it looks like a 2-storey building from the outside but in fact it has three floors. The magnificent two-storey façade of the library is adorned by four women sculptures, the originals of which are unfortunately in the Vienna museum. These sculptures represent the four virtues of Celsus: Sophia (Wisdom), Episteme (Knowledge), Ennoia (Intelligence) and Arete (Virtue).
This structure, which is known as the third largest library of antiquity after the libraries of Alexandria and Pergamon by hosting 14,000 manuscript papyrus and parchment, and which has raised philosophers like Heraclitus, in a sense, shows us the respect of the people of Ephesus to knowledge and philosophy beyond centuries.
Another important feature of the Celsus library is that it also contains a Heroon, a monumental tomb. It is the tomb of the person whose name this library was given, Celsus.
5. Terrace Houses
These houses, where the richest people of the city live, have survived almost intact and each one is truly incredibly beautiful. In addition to the aesthetic elements such as mosaics and wall decorations in the houses, it is hard to believe that there was a heating and sewage system in these houses 2500 years ago, but they really did it. Unfortunately, the museum card is uselesst to see these beautiful houses or more accurately, the villas of the time. As of 2020, you can visit this magnificent neighborhood by paying 45 TL per person, roughly 9$.
The excavations of the slope have been carried out by Austria until today, and they covered the archeological site with a large roof to keep these beautiful houses safe, of course, by Austria. Interesting! After visiting the terrace Houses and completing your tour, you go down a road with a view of Marble Street and connect to Curetes Street again. And you can continue your trip from the Curetes Street up to the city center
6. The Curetes Street
With its magnificent buildings the Curetes Street , stretching from the library of Celsus to the Heracles Gate that divides the city into two parts, was probably the most important and crowded street of the city. Under this street, there was a very large sewage system that carried the wastes of the houses and shops around. On the street, you can also see the iconic places of Ephesus, such as the Trajan Fountain, where people without water supply in their houses could drink water, and the Hadrianus Temple built in the name of Hadrianus, the traveling emperor of Rome.
7. Hadrianus Temple
The most important feature of this temple, which was built in the name of Emperor Hadrian, who united and strengthened the Roman empire and was loved a lot by the people of Rome, is the presence of a female figure depicting Artemis, on the keystone of the arch at the entrance. In Ephesus, where the mother goddess cult is very important, this figure in the keystone.expresses the value given to women. They tried to explain allegorically that the life would disintegrate if the women had withdrawn from life just like the arch would disintegrate if the keystone were taken, what a point of view! We have progressed a lot in 2500 years indeed!
8. Heracles Gate
The Heracles Gate, which divides the city into two partsd, was built in the name of the hero we know as Hercules. Heracles was a very emotional hero, as well as being very powerful, naive enough to fight with the waves hitting the ship while sailing, and clumsy enough to kill a little boy with his hand accidentally. Let’s leave the story of why the statue of Heracles was depicted with a skin of a lion he killed in this door in the middle of the city to another article. Of course, there is also the story of murdering his family, which is another of his own silliness.
9. Nike Relief
The Goddess Victoria of Roman mythology, Nike, awaits you in Ephesus, right after the Heracles gate, with a laurel wreath in one hand and a palm branch in the other. Nike, the goddess of victory of Ancient Greece, who has the ability to run and fly very fast, is also the goddess named after the famous Nike brand today. You will notice immediately when you see the similarity of its wings with the Nike brand logo.
10. Asklepion Building
You will find this structure across the Nike statue, which is not very clear whether it belongs to Asclepius or not in fact. The presence of entangled snakes belonging to Asclepius on a pedestal outside the structure is thought to have been used as a medical center or something like that. You may have noticed that the snakes of Asclepius turned into Caduseus, which has become the symbol of medicine today. In mythologies, snake is considered as an animal that finds immortality because it changes its skin every year. It was believed that he had the knowledge of everything because he was immortal. In the Adam-Eve-Snake story, the snake also comes to Eve and whispers that the knowledge of immortality is in the apple tree!
11. Odeon
As you go on towards the left from the building of Asclepius, you will see the Odeon, the second amphitheater of Ephesus, near the upper entrance. This place is much smaller than the Grand Theater, because it was used as a parliament building where municipal meetings were held. The most important feature of this place is that it is covered with wooden porches to protect the remaining residents of the city from the weather conditions during the meetings. They guess that the upper part of the stage was covered, as there were no gutters or drains on the stage to drain rainwater.
Where is Ephesus and The Entrance Fee
You can easily find Ephesus on the map below. It is very easy to reach Ephesus by following the signs after Selcuklu. Entry to Ephesus is possible with a Museum Card, or you have to pay 100 TL. However, you cannot enter the Hillside Houses in Ephesus with the Museum Card. As of 2020, you need to pay 45 TL per person, but what you will see absolutely worth the money.
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