Ephesus (Efes)

Ephesus is the most impressive ancient site accessible from İzmir and one of the best-preserved Roman cities in the world. At its peak in the second century CE, Ephesus had a population of around 250,000 — comparable to Rome itself — and the excavated remains give a genuine sense of that scale: marble-paved streets, a library facade 17 metres tall, a theatre seating 24,000 people.

From İzmir, take the train to Selçuk (about 75 minutes, several departures daily) and then a taxi or dolmuş to the site. Allow at least four hours on site, and start early — the heat and the crowds both build quickly after 10am. The terrace houses, requiring a separate ticket, are among the finest examples of Roman domestic painting outside Pompeii.

things to do sight
A story
The Library of Celsus at Ephesus — whose two-storey facade is one of the most photographed monuments of the ancient world — was built not as a place of study but as a mausoleum. It was constructed in the second century CE as a tomb for the Roman governor Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, whose sarcophagus lies beneath the floor. The thousands of scrolls housed in the niches above him were secondary to the prestige of the building itself.