One other building dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian in Ephesus is the gate standing at the beginning of the road leading to Ortygia at the end of the Curetes Street. In the Roman period when an emperor visited a city it was a tradition to construct a monumental building in his honour. The Gate of Hadrian must have been dedicated to the Emperor upon his coming to Ephesus.
The gate faced the Marble Street more than the Curetes Street and provided a passage, besides the Ortygia road, also to another road climbing up towards the Terrace Houses. It had three gateways and three storeys. And it is one of the finest examples of the rich marble carving of the period of Hadrian. Its restoration was begun in 1988 by the Austrian Institute of Archaeology and is not yet completed.
Gate of Hadrian Ephesus
Gate of Hadrian, Ephesus
Hadrian’s Gate, located at the junction of the Curetes Street and the Marble Street.
xCuretes Street (known as the Embolos in Late Antiquity) is the diagonal street in Ephesus that runs from the State Agora to the Library of Celsus. Once lined with shops, workshops and inns, Curetes Street was both a main city street and an important processional route in the cult of Artemis.
Across from the brothel, the lower columns of the monumental Gate of Hadrian, with its three arches, are visible this structure was dedicated to the emperor during his lifetime. The gate leads to the terrace houses, and to Ortygia, the place thought to be the birthplace of Artemis.