03Cities and regions

Aegean coast

Ephesus

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, near today's town of Selçuk in İzmir Province. Founded in the tenth century BC, it grew into one of the region's great ports and trading centres, until the Küçükmenderes River silted up its harbour and the city faded. In antiquity it was famous for the Temple of Artemis, completed around 550 BC and counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; only foundations and fragments remain. The highlight today is the façade of the Library of Celsus, finished in the second century AD. It was the third-largest library of the Greco-Roman world after Alexandria and Pergamon and is thought to have held about 12,000 scrolls. After centuries in ruins, its front was raised again by archaeologists between 1970 and 1978. Close by, the great theatre once seated 24,000 people. Ephesus became a World Heritage site in 2015. Allow half a day, start early to beat the summer heat, bring water and a hat, and finish at the temple site on the edge of Selçuk.

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Seats in the great theatre

About 12,000

Scrolls in the Library of Celsus

2015

World Heritage since