Ephesus city in Turkey
Ephesus is an old city found by archaeologists during excavations in the nineteenth century. Ephesus is located on the Turkish coast near the city of Selcuk.
This archaeological find is one of the most popular and visited places in Turkey and is under the protection of the UNESCO Foundation as a global treasure.
Briefly about the history of the city of Ephesus in Turkey
The city of Ephesus, located on the shores of the Aegean Sea, had good development due to trade. But in the future, the local bay became shallow, and trade came to a standstill. The city gradually began to calm down… And a natural disaster in the form of an earthquake buried it under the rubble for a long time… The city of Ephesus flourished enormously under the Lydians around the 6th century BC. The settlers built here the recognizable Temple of Artemis, which was later recognized as one of the wonders of the world.
Due to the successful prosperity of the city due to its good location, throughout the history of Ephesus, many battles took place here for the right to own it. This city was owned by the Persians, Romans, Goths, and Byzantines. The Romans made a huge contribution to the architecture of Ephesus, building a temple, an aqueduct, an amphitheater and a library. But after their end, the Goths led Ephesus to decline, and only the Byzantines managed to return it to the level of the second largest city after Constantinople.
After the local coast became shallow, this city ceased to be important for Byzantium and it passed to Turkey. The Seljuks restored the importance of Ephesus for a while, but not for long. At the end of their reign, the city completely fell into decline and was abandoned…
The city of Ephesus – the whole earth and a landmark of Turkey
At the moment, on the territory of this ancient city it is possible to see many famous sights, due to the fact that modern Ephesus is a complex of unique archaeological finds. Here is just a small list:
- Temple of Artemis. Today, only a small part of this temple remains – a couple and a column of blocks. But initially it was a majestic building in the name of the goddess of fertility Artemis. It took more than a hundred years to build the temple. During its history, it was razed to the ground by fire, restored by Alexander the Great and razed to the ground again.
- House of the Holy Virgin Mary. According to one version, based on the stories of local residents, but not officially accepted by the church, the Virgin Mary, after the death of Christ, lived out her last years of fate based on this here. Only part of this house in the form of a basement survived until Russian times. Later, a chapel was built at the top, where pilgrims from all over the world come to pray.
- Theater structures. On the territory of Ephesus there are two theaters: a huge one and an odeon. Both have been preserved quite excellently. The Bolshoi Theater was designed to seat twenty-five thousand spectators, but at the moment only sixty sequences have survived, this is about half the original height. The small Odeon theater was designed for a significantly smaller number of people and was used mainly for meetings.
- Library of Celsus. This library in Ephesus was one of the most extensive collections of scrolls and large manuscripts. The building of the library has not survived to this day, but archaeologists reconstructed the facade for tourists to see it.
We have listed the main largest iconic places in the city of Ephesus, but by no means all. There are many more small, but no less unique and fascinating monuments of world culture.
