Ephesus

One of Rome's greatest cities. Walk the marble streets past the Library of Celsus, the Great Theatre (25,000 seats), and the Temple of Hadrian. Wine was traded, stored, and celebrated throughout this magnificent city.

What to do there

4 things to do

1. 1 Stand at the Tomb That Became a Library History · Price: moderate

   Where: The Library of Celsus facade, midway through the site on the main marble avenue — you cannot miss it. Enter via the Upper (Magnesia) Gate to arrive here walking downhill, the city unfolding beneath you.

   What: You are standing in front of a building that is simultaneously one of the Roman world's greatest libraries and one man's elaborate tomb. Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus — proconsul of the entire province of Asia — is buried here, in a decorated marble sarcophagus in a crypt beneath the floor of the apse, at the back of the library. His son Aquila commissioned this entire structure in the 110s CE (it was finished under Hadrian, after Aquila's death) not as a library first, but as a funerary monument: a way of honouring his father in marble and in 12,000 scrolls. It became the third-largest library in the Greco-Roman world, after those of Alexandria and Pergamum. The four women in the facade niches aren't decorative — they're Sophia (Wisdom), Episteme (Knowledge), Ennoia (Intelligence), and Arete (Excellence). They are the four virtues the son claimed his father embodied. The facade collapsed in an earthquake in the 10th or 11th century; it was painstakingly reassembled stone by stone between 1970 and 1978 using the original blocks.

   How: Tickets €40 (site entry) from April–October 08:00–19:00, November–March 08:30–17:00. Enter Upper Gate — this puts you walking downhill through the city, saving your knees for the heat. Avoid 10am–2pm when cruise-ship crowds from Kuşadası arrive. Get here at 08:00 or after 15:00. Stand at the base and look up at the four statues: try naming them left to right before reading the labels. Face the building and picture the far end of the hall: the sarcophagus chamber lies beneath the floor of the apse at the back.

   Backup: If crowds make the facade inaccessible, walk a short way uphill along Curetes Street to the Hadrian Temple — same era (117–138 CE), same quality of carving, almost no one stops there long enough to read the Medusa on the inner arch.

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2. 2 See the Theater Where a Riot Changed History History · Free

   Where: The Great Theater of Ephesus — the enormous semicircle cut into the hillside at the western end of the marble avenue. Visible from everywhere on the site, but its seating tiers and stage level have been closed for restoration since April 2025, and so is the road from the Library of Celsus to the theatre. View it from outside, from the Commercial Agora.

   What: In approximately 55 AD, a silversmith named Demetrius stood somewhere near this stage and gave a speech that started one of the most vividly recorded riots in ancient history. His problem was simple: Paul of Tarsus had been preaching in Ephesus for three years and was so effective that fewer and fewer people were buying silver miniatures of the Artemis shrine — the souvenir trade that paid the silversmiths' wages. Demetrius called a guild meeting and explained that their livelihoods were at stake. The crowd grew. Then it grew more. Then the crowd rushed into this theatre, built to seat some 24,000–25,000, and chanted 'Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!' for two straight hours while Paul's travel companions Gaius and Aristarchus were dragged to the stage. The city clerk eventually climbed up and talked them down — pointing out, with civil-servant practicality, that a riot without legal cause would get them in trouble with Rome. Paul, who had already decided to go, left for Macedonia. In 1984, archaeologists found the silversmiths' guild monument on the street below this theater. The riot actually happened here, on this marble.

   How: From the Commercial Agora, follow the curve of the cavea up the hillside to its top tier, the 66th row. Then picture every seat filled and the chant rolling down to the stage.

   Backup: If the view from the Commercial Agora is crowded, the theatre is visible from everywhere on the site — find any clear line of sight to its tiers.

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3. 3 Walk Through the Room Everyone Else Walked Past Adventure · Price: low

   Where: The Terrace Houses complex — on Bülbüldağı Hill, directly opposite the Temple of Hadrian on Curetes Street. Look for the large protective roof structure. Requires a separate ticket booth at the entrance.

   What: Ninety-nine percent of visitors to Ephesus see the marble facades. You are about to see the interiors — and they are more shocking. Under this climate-controlled roof, archaeologists have exposed two blocks of luxurious Roman townhouses dating from the 1st to the 7th centuries AD. You walk on glass-floor platforms suspended over kitchens where amphorae are still in the alcoves, dining rooms where the mosaic floors are intact down to the individual tesserae, and bedroom walls where the fresco paint — two thousand years old — is still vivid enough to see the brushwork. One room has a graffito scratched into the plaster. The Romans had underfloor heating (hypocaust systems) and pressurized running water. One of the wealthiest residents lived here during the same decades Paul was preaching in the theater below. The contrast is the point: the streets of Ephesus looked like New York. The houses looked like this.

   How: Additional €15 ticket. Budget an extra 30–45 minutes. Go before 10am or after 3pm to have the glass walkways mostly to yourself. Bring the main site entrance receipt — the Terrace Houses ticket booth is separate but adjacent to the main flow of Curetes Street. Photography allowed.

   Backup: If the Terrace Houses are closed for conservation work on a given day, go directly to the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk town, a drive from the Lower Gate. Its Great Artemis statues, found at the Prytaneum, show the goddess whose shrines the silversmiths were selling in miniature when Paul arrived.

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4. 4 Taste the Grape Legend Links to Herodotus Wine · Price: moderate

   Where: Yedi Bilgeler ('Seven Sages') Vineyards — Döltenaltı Mevkii, Gökçealan Köyü, Selçuk, İzmir. 15-minute drive from the Lower Gate of Ephesus, past the village of Çamlik. GPS: 37.9220, 27.4100. Call ahead: +90 531 991 36 33 (restaurant) or email info@yedibilgeler.com.tr

   What: The winery is named after the Seven Sages of antiquity — the 6th-century BC wise men of Greece, two of whom, Thales and Bias, came from Miletus and Priene, cities this journey passes through. The winery's 7Bilgeler series carries the names of ancient thinkers, from Pythagoras to Anaxagoras. The grape you want is Bornova Misketi; the story goes that Herodotus knew it as 'moskhatos'. It is reputed to be the oldest documented wine variety in the world — grown in the Izmir hills, producing wine before the Library of Celsus existed, before Paul arrived, before the silversmiths made their shrine miniatures. Dry-style Bornova Misketi smells of bergamot, orange blossom, and apricot — Mediterranean in the most literal sense.

   How: Tastings by appointment. The Mayadan restaurant serves a gourmet multi-course meal paired with estate wines with views over the vineyard — this is the post-Ephesus dinner that makes the day complete. Allow 2–3 hours for tasting + meal.

   Backup: If Yedi Bilgeler is closed or fully booked, drive 8km to Şirince village — minibuses run from Selçuk's bus station. The fruit wines (strawberry, pomegranate, peach) are not fine wine, but the village itself is a living Ottoman-Greek artifact, the wine sellers are in every doorway, and the views over the valley are extraordinary. Or go earlier in the day to Urla Peninsula (about 87km northwest by road, a 1.5-hour drive from Ephesus) where Urla Winery produces Decanter Platinum-winning wines and the Urla Bağ Yolu trail has 10 participating wineries.

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