RuinscapeLost places of Earth All 216 entries

No. 28

Ephesus

On land Near East & Persia
Façade of the Celsus library, in Ephesus, near Selçuk, west Turkey.
Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Where
Turkey
Built by
Greeks, then Romans
Era
1000 BCE-600s CE
Known for
The Library of Celsus and the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders.
How it ended
The harbor silted up and the city lost its reason to exist.
Temple of Artemis, Ephesus, Turkey
FDV, CC BY-SA 4.0
Street scene at the archeological exacavations at Ephesus. Ephesus (Ancient Greek Ἔφεσος, Turkish Efes) was an ancient Greek city on the west coast of Anatolia, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey.
Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0
Greek Goddess Artemis retrieved from the temple of the goddess in Ephesus.
Metuboy, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Background

Ephesus ( EF-uh-suhs; Ancient Greek: Έφεσος) was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, a city-state that was also the capital of Arzawa, by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. During the Classical Greek era, it was one of twelve cities that were members of the Ionian League. The city came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC.

The city was famous in its day for the nearby Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), which has been designated one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Its many monumental buildings included the Library of Celsus and a theatre capable of holding 24,000 spectators.

Ephesus was a recipient city of one of the Pauline epistles and one of the seven churches of Asia addressed in the Book of Revelation. The Gospel of John may have been written there, and it was the site of several 5th-century Christian Councils (Council of Ephesus). The city was destroyed by the Goths in 263. Although it was afterwards rebuilt, its importance as a port and commercial centre declined as the harbour was slowly silted up by the Küçükmenderes River. In 614, it was partially destroyed by an earthquake.

Today, the ruins of Ephesus are a favourite international and local tourist attraction, being accessible from Adnan Menderes Airport and from the resort town Kuşadası. In 2015, the ruins were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.