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Our detailed, interactive city map of Ephesus, plus hand-picked links to the best Ephesus map elsewhere.
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The most important commercial center of the western Anatolia in the 1st century BC. and one of the highlights of Turkey. Ephesus was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city. Ephesus was biblically very important.
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In ancient times it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but today the Temple of Artemis is represented by a single column standing in a swamp.
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House of Mary discovered in a vision by a bedridden German nun in 1812, this stone building is believed by many Catholics and Muslims to be where the Virgin Mary lived her last years. There is also a healing fountain.
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In ancient times it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but today the Temple of Artemis is represented by a single column standing in a swamp.
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The Basilica of St. John was built by Emperor Justinian in the 6th century over the traditional tomb of John the Evangelist. The site became a major pilgrimage destination in the Early Middle Ages.
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According to legend, seven Christian boys were locked in this cave by the Romans in c.250 AD, fell asleep, and woke up in the 5th century. It became a place of burial and pilgrimage.
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The Isabey Mosque was built in 1375 at the direction of the Emir of Aydin. It incorporates columns and stones recycled from the ruins of Ephesus and the Temple of Artemis.
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The facade of the Library of Celsus is one of the most spectacular sights in Ephesus. Built by a Roman in memory of his father, it faces east so the reading rooms receive the morning light.
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This magnificent classical theater is considered an important biblical site: the probable place where Paul preached to the pagans in Acts. It is still in use and can seat thousands.
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A very important civic building where the sacred fire of Hestia was tended, official visitors were received by civic and religious dignitaries, and where two statues of the Ephesian Artemis were found.
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This attractive Roman imperial temple was constructed in 118 AD and reconstructed in the fifth century. Its tympanum bears an interesting frieze that may depict Medusa.
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Foundations of a basilica-like building that may have been one of several synagogues known to exist in ancient Ephesus. A Jewish lamp was found on the site.
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The brothel and public latrine of ancient Ephesus are located directly across Marble Street from the Library of Celsus. Both date from the 1st century AD.
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Once lined with shops and inns, Curetes Street was a main city street and an important processional route in the cult of Artemis.
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Ephesus terrace houses are located on the hill, opposite the Hadrian Temple, also known as the houses of the rich.
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This was the building located at the beginning of the Harbour Street near the Theatre. The excavation is not completed. Gymnasium had a great number of rooms which were used as classrooms, dormitories and libraries.
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According to an inscription discovered in excavations this gymnasium was built by P. Vedius Antonius from the Vedius who were a well known family of Ephesus and his wife Flavia Papiana.
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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.
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Domitian Square was an important commercial centre. The existence in Ephesus ruins of shops of a density which would not be seen in other old cities is related to the overseas trade of Ephesus
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The gate was named after two reliefs on these lintels which showed Hercules draped in a lion skin. The gate was constructed with two tiers of columns.
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The part of the Sacred road running between the Library of Celsus and the Grand Theatre is called the Marble Street. The street was paved with large blocks of marble and had herring bone slopes.
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The partially repaired fountain on the right side of the Curetes Street was dedicated to the Emperor Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd century AD. The dedicatory inscription is today on the cornice near the structure.
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Basilica of Ephesus is located between the Odeum and the State Agora. It had three naves and a two ridged gable roof. The roof was made of wood and no trace of it has been found.
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The most important places of defense in a city are certainly its walls and gates. Until the period which we call the Roman Peace (Pax Romana) (the 2nd-3rd centuries AD)
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The last monumental tombs found in the district of Ephesus, it belongs to the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 15th centuries, hence to the period of the Principality of Aydınoğulları. It is not known to whom it belonged.
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In the 6th century a church was built at the corner of the building near the Magnesia Gate so, that corner was already destroyed by then.
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The building following this is a Byzantine fountain conctructed on top of a monumental tomb which lay in the same place. The outer side of the walls of the fountain’s pool have lozenge shaped decorations with crosses in the middle, a most significant element of the Byzantine period.
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On the fragment of the architrave lying today near the building is written “Caius Memmius, the Saviour, son of Caicus, grandson of Cornelius Sulla”. The monument was built in the 1st century AD.
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It is famous for being the first temple built for an emperor in Ephesus. In the Roman period the building of temples for emperors was made a matter of honour among similar cities.
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The Temple of serapis consisting of a naos and a pronaos was in the form of a typical prostyle. It was built of large blocks of marble of which the weight would be 40-50 tons at first sight. This is a most significant particularity of Egyptian religious buildings.
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Harbour of Ephesus which has today turned into a very small lake. In the Hellenistic period and at the beginning of the Roman period the harbour was the best protected mercantile port of the Mediterranean.
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The street constructed in the 1st century BC was repaired and widened by the Eastern Roman Emperor Arcadius (395-408) and made into a true ceremonial street.
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It was constructed together with the buildings around it during the reconstruction of that part of the city under the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (117-138). Next to the Verulanus sports ground was the Harbour Gymnasium.
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The building following the Temple of Hadrian is a house with a peristyle known as the House of Love. The statue of Priapus, called the god Bes, on display in the Museum of Ephesus was found in this house.
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There are two agoras in Ephesus, the State Agora and the Trade Agora. The Trade Agora lies to the west of the city near the Celsus Library.
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This structure lies at the entrance of the city in the Kusadası direction. A good example of the stadiums of the period, it is 230 metres long and 30 metres wide. Its entrance is on the west.
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Standing near the library provided entrance to the Mercantile Agora of Ephesus and was known by the name of Mazeus Mithradates and Mithradates who were slaves under the Emperor Augustus were given their liberty
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The Odeum had the aspect of a small theatre. Its difference from a theatre was that it was once covered. The seating section of the building of which restoration is at present going on, was reached by stepped side streets covered by vaults on two sides
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Scholastikia Baths are one of the important buildings of the Curetes Street, located in the city centre, it must have been a bath where the distinguished famillies of the city, rather than ordinary people, washed and cleaned themselves and then talked about daily matters.
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The vestiges to the east of the Odeum belong to the building called the Varius Baths. The excavation of all the parts of the baths except the cold room has been done, however no restoration has yet been undertaken.
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Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.95 million as of 2010,making the city third most populous in Turkey.
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Sirince was settled when Ephesus was abandoned in the 15th century but most of what one sees today dates from the 19th century.
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Selcuk is one of the most visited touristic destinations within Turkey, known for its closeness to the ancient city of Ephesus, House of the Virgin Mary and Seljuk works of art.
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Kusadası is a resort town on Turkey’s Aegean coast, Kuşadası caters to tourists, arriving by land, and as the port for cruise ship passengers heading to Ephesus.
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Ephesus, 100% based on 28099 ratings 
Still an operating church. Small but powerful. Worth visiting or either religious or cultural reasons.
It is hard to believe that man was as civilized as he was back in these ancient times. It is a central focal point of the city.
This is one building in a whole city of ruins but it stands out. It apparently was restored early and unlike other restoration doesn't make clear what is old and what is new. The statues on the facade are definitely copies. The originals are in a nearby museum in Selcuk which is undergoing renovation so is inaccessible. Great building facade…
Temple of Domitian
The western termination of the so-called State Agora is formed by an imperial cult temple which is constructed above a substructure which is in part two-storeyed. The main entrance to the area is located in the north, where a multi-storeyed façade, partially articulated by supporting figures, flanks a staircase leading to the temple. The area of the temple was framed by continuous colonnades, and in addition a secondary entrance has been identified in the west.
Although not much is preserved of the temple itself, during the excavation in 1930 the ground plan could essentially be clarified. Above a six-stepped stylobate (24 × 34 m), rose a pseudodipteral temple with cella and pronaos as well as a peristyle of 8 × 13 columns. To the east of the temple, remains of a U-shaped altar building were discovered, with a relief frieze depicting scenes of sacrifice and representations of weapons. While parts of the frieze were discovered in situ, other parts were found in a fountain in the Lower City, where they had been built in during the Byzantine period.
The attribution of the temple to the Emperor Domitian is due to the discovery of a head as well as other body parts from a colossal statue, found in the substructures. On the basis of these finds, the temple was associated with the epigraphically attested first neocorate at Ephesos for Emperor Domitian and his wife Domitia. After his murder and damnatio memoriae, the worship was transferred to Vespasian and eventually to the entire Flavian dynasty, and the cult continued to be maintained. According to the most recent results of research, the building might already have been begun in the Neronian period; furthermore, the attribution of the head to Titus is hardly doubted anymore.
After the partial excavation of the temple and the altar, the site has continued to remain the focus of far-reaching interpretations. Due to the sparse amount of archaeological finds, however, these interpretations could not be completely followed through, since until now neither the date of erection, nor the dedication, nor the duration of the cult or the destruction of the site could be determined with any degree of certainty.
Within the framework of the project »Cult and Ruler«, the excavations in the area of the imperial cult temple were taken up again in 2009, and a geophysical survey followed in 2010. The focus of the excavations was on the absolute-chronological classification of the building phases, in particular the period of destruction and the later usage of the site. Whereas the building materials from the temple and the altar were already completely removed, reworked or reused in antiquity, the marble slabs of the courtyard paving lying in situ have been preserved, or, where they are no longer extant, their mortar substructure is preserved. Above this lay a 15–20 cm deep burned layer, within which numerous broken pieces of the temple architecture and of statue fragments were preserved. Particularly worthy of mention are architectural blocks from the northern colonnade, which came to light where they had fallen directly onto the courtyard paving. Coins and pottery date the destruction of the temple and its colonnades to the early 5th century A.D.
The temple itself was demolished down to its substructure. On top of this, in the Late Antique/Byzantine period, a rectangular structure of quarry stone walls was erected, complete with massive supports in the form of pilasters on the exterior. Within the building, the floor level was raised by ca. 1.5 m by pouring in opus caementicium in layers. The extremely solid building methods suggest the character of fortifications for the building; it was probably a strategic location between the Byzantine core settlement in the former Lower City, and the hinterland.
The courtyard and the colonnades, moreover, were also built up in the Late Antique-Byzantine period. On the basis of the geophysical prospection, which revealed an intensive development in the east of the Imperial cult area, excavations were initiated in 2011. The excavations revealed an impressive building complex consisting of a courtyard, an elongated room with mosaic floor, a fountain and a tract for commercial use. From the originally rich decoration, bases, columns and capitals of marble are preserved, and the courtyard was also paved with marble slabs. A ca. 50 m2 room adjacent to the court at the south was particularly elaborately decorated. Here, a four-coloured mosaic floor was laid. Although only approximately one quarter of the pavement has been revealed, the decorative scheme can be reconstructed: pictorial fields, framed by an ivy leaf motif, alternate with an intertwined meander pattern. Marine creatures are depicted, with their representation being based as much on nature as on fantasy. Particularly impressive is a mythical creature with a lion’s head and body and a fish tail. To the south of the mosaic room was adjoined a three-part nymphaeum oriented in a north-south direction. The central, apse-form niche is flanked on both sides by smaller, rectangular niches, while the basin lying in front is bordered by massive slabs. The water withdrawal occurred in the east, where the overflow basin and drain channels were also located. To the west of the fountain were rooms which served a commercial purpose.
An initial chronological evaluation has indicated that the building was already erected in the 5th century A.D., probably not long after the destruction of the temple. The period of usage extended probably into the 6th century A.D., as it has not been possible to document more recent finds.
The high standard of living is expressed not only in the architecture and the decorative elements, but is also reflected in the small finds. Thus, in the commercial rooms were found not only numerous imported amphoras from a variety of regions of the Empire, but also valuable everyday objects. Two door knockers, one in the form of a Latin cross, the other in the form of a lion’s head, can be highlighted, as well as an exceptionally well-preserved early Byzantine steelyard.
Located in the mountains, in the shade of centurial forest, the House is a place visited and respected by Christians as well as Muslims.
Well worth the 2 min jaunt up the steep and varied stairs. It's cool to have a friend stand at the top of the stands while you speak their name – they can hear you! Such a cool piece of history to witness.
After the short drive up the mountain from Ephesus, this unassuming site can be quite powereful. Very nice grounds for relaxation and contemplation. The house is small but taking in the entire environs makes your visit more complete.
This place is a great historical Roman architectural house of Virgin Mary. The story behind the discovery of Virgin Mary's House is astonishing.
It was incredible to see how well such a large structure has withstood the weather and time.
I thoroughly enjoyed this trip. Since we were not able to make it to the Vatican, this more than made up for it. a beautiful setting with a lot of history. Make sure you bring along a pen and paper in order to write your intentions and attach to the wall below the Virgin Mary House.