A travel blog again by me. Let's travel in an ancient town... Come to meet the glory of the past of my race. Ephesus is my blog's theme and I am going to present you also its history and take you with me in a walk at the streets that a few thousand years ago my ancestors walked.

Ephesus is the town of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Artemis temple. This temple covers an area of 125meters by 60meters, as big as a soccer field with columns 30 meter high. This temple is believed to be rebuilt 7 times.

Ephesus has been discovered in Selcuk, Izmir in western Turkey.
Kusadasi is 19 km. far away from Ephesus and Pamucak beach is 5 km far away from Ephesus.

The original site of Ancient Ephesus was most likely established on the Aegean coast, on the shores of that sea which is today located 8 km. away from the archaeological excavations.

Over the centuries, in fact, the rubble brought on to the plain of the "Kucuk Menderes" has enlarged the alluvial plain surrounding the archaeological zone, leaving behind in actual fact the shores of the Aegean. In Roman times it was situated on the northern slopes of the hills Coressus and Pion and south of the Cayster (Kucuk Menderes) River, the silt from which has since formed a fertile plain but has caused the coastline to move ever farther west. In Roman times a sea channel was maintained with difficulty to a harbor well west of Pion. By late Byzantine times this channel had become useless, and the coast by the mid-20th century was three miles farther west.

Ephesus was constructed on a river bend, that was eventually dredged into a full harbor near the mount of the Cayster River, on the western coast of Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Along the coastal plain between Smyrna to the north and Miletus to the south, the site is now about six miles from the Aegean Sea. The city shifted in five distinct locations over time, each within a small area. The Apostles Paul and John were familiar with the city that scholars have dubbed "Ephesus III" the largest (in area) of the five.

The areas where Ephesus located on:
Ephesus I: Aya Suluk (St. John Area);
Ephesus II: Artemission area;
Ephesus III: Port of St. Paul: base of Mount Koressos;
Ephesus IV: north of Aya Suluk;
Ephesus V: Selcuk area.

Because of the man-made harbor structure and the flow of the river, a backwash flow caused the harbor to frequently silt up (by 449 BCE we already read of problems documented about the silting. Later, Eusebius records that Ephesus honoured Emperor Hadrian for dredging and making navigable the harbor). When cleared, Ephesus was in a location that justified a great seaport. The city sat at the convergence of three land routes with a shipping lane from the north via the channel created by the Island of Chios and an opening facing the cities of Macedonia.
The land routes that converged on Ephesus included:
The Colossae / Laodicea road (traveling east), the road to Sardis and Galatia (northeast), and the Smyrna (north) main road.

In the year of 10 BC, Androclos, the son of King of Athens-Kodros, was searching a location for establishing a site. Androclos belonged to Akhas, was running from the Dor invasion in Greece. He was leading one of the migration convoys. It was predicted by an Apollon oracle that a fish and a boar would show the location of the new settlement. Days later, parallel to the oracle's prediction, while frying, a fish fell down from the pan, irritating a hiding boar behind the bushes. The feared boar escaped immediately. Androclos followed the boar and established the city of Ephesus, where he had killed the boar. When Androclos died in the wars with Carians, a mausoleum was built to the memory of the first king of Ephesus. The mausoleum is considered to be placed around " The Door of Magnesia ".

Ephesus was ruled by the Lydian king, Kreisos, in the mid 6BC. The city reached the "Golden Age" and became a good model to the Antic World in culture and art, as well. But the inhabitants of Ephesus moved away. Because they did not like being ruled and lived in the new Ephesus that is located around the area of Artemis . As the detailed excavations have not completed yet, apart from the Artemis, the remains of that age haven't been revealed.

Later, Ephesus was dominated by Persians. As Ephesians did not join the "Ionian Rebellion" against Persians, the city was saved from destruction. The rebellion resulted in the loss of Persian. Alexander the Great won Persians and the Ionian cities got their independence in the year of 334.

Ephesus was in great prosperity during the times of Alexander the Great Until the arrival of Alexander the Great, Ephesus was consisted of two governing systems, democratic and oligarchic. But the oligarchic system was violated with the coming of a new ruler, and a rebellion existed in Ephesus.

The Temple of Artemis was fired and destroyed by the supporters of oligarchy in 356BC. As the temple became unusable, Alexander the Great proposed for repairing. But the Ephesians delicately refused for the reason that "A God can not build a temple for a God." An Ephesian architect, Dinocrates restored the Temple of Artemis.

Walking at the main street we pass from the Temple of Hadrian. It is one of the best preserved and most beautiful structures on Curetes Street. It was built before 138 A.D by P.Quintilius and was dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian, who came to visit the city from Athens in 128 A.D The facade of the temple has four Corinthian columns supporting a curved arch, in the middle of which contains a relief of Tyche, goddess of victory. The side columns are square. The pedestal with inscriptions in front of the temple, are the bases for the statues of the emperors between 293-305 CE, Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius I, and Galerius; the originals of the statues have not been found yet.

Inside the temple above the door, a human figure, probably Medusa stands with ornaments of acanthus leaves. On both sides there are friezes depicting the story of the foundation of Ephesus - Androklos shooting a boar, Dionysus in ceremonial procession and the Amazons. The fourth frieze portrays two male figures, one of which is Apollo; Athena, goddess of the moon; a female figure, Androkles, Herakles, the wife and son of Theodosius and the goddess Athena.

Time to pass now from the Hercules Gate… It is located towards the end of the Curetes Street ; it was called the Hercules gate because of the relief of Hercules on it. It was brought from another place in the fourth century AD to its current place, but the relief on it dates back to the second century AD.

Only the two sides of the columns remain today and the other parts of it have not been found. The relief of the flying Nike in the Domitian Square is thought to also be a part of this gate.

This place collects every year milions of people. They come here to feel the ancient magic. They walk at the same streets that people thousand years ago walked. They tried to be part of history meeting the ancient spirit.

Let's walk at the main street of Ephesus and pay a visit to a place of knowledge. Let's discover the library of Celsus which was built for Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus and completed in AD 135 in Ephesus, Asia Minor (Anatolia) (now Turkey). Celsus' son, Gaius Julius Aquila (consul AD 110), built the library in honor of his father who was consul in AD 92, former governor of Asia in AD 115, and a wealthy and popular local citizen. The library was built to store 12,000 scrolls and to serve as a monumental tomb for Celsus. It was unusual to be buried within a library or even within city limits, so this was a special honor for Celsus.

The building itself is a single hall that faces eastward toward the sun in the morning so as to benefit those who are early risers. The library is built on a platform with nine steps the full width of the building leading up to three front entrances. The center entrance is larger than the two surrounding entrances and all are adorned with windows above them. Along the entrances are four pairs of Ionic order columns raised by pedestals. Another set of Corinthian order columns stands directly above the first set, adding to the height of the building. The pairs of columns on the second level frame the windows as the columns on the first level frame the doors, and they also create niches where statues would have been housed.

The statues in the niches of the columns today are the copies of the originals, which were taken to Viana on the excavations in 1910. The statues symbolize wisdom (Sophia), knowledge (Episteme), intelligence (Ennoia) and virtue (Arete) of Celsus.

The most magnificent structure in Ephesus ancient city, the great Theatre is located on the slope of Panayir Hill, opposite the Harbor Street, and easily seen when entering from the south entrance to Ephesus. It was first constructed in the Hellenistic Period, in the third century BC during the reign of Lysimachos, but then during the Roman Period, it was enlarged and formed its current style that is seen today.

Being the largest in Anatolia, the theatre has the capacity of 25,000 seats. The cavea has sixty six rows of seats, divided by two diazoma (walkway between seats) into three horizontal sections. There are three sections of seats. In the lower section, Marble pieces, used for restoration, and the Emperor's Box were found. The seats with backs, made of marble, were reserved for important people. The audience entered from the upper cavea.
The stage building is three-storied and 18 meters high. The facade facing the audience was ornamented with relieves, columns with niches, windows and statues. There are five doors opening to the orchestra area, the middle one of which is wider than the rest. This enhanced the appearance of the stage, giving it a bigger, monumental look.