Why go
Read the ruins as a city that repeatedly shifted its center. The Artemis sanctuary, the Hellenistic and Roman streets, and the Basilica of St. John belong to different phases; connecting them makes the scattered remains much easier to understand. The sequence also explains why the modern visitor sites do not form one continuous ancient street.
The full story
Settlement in the Ephesus area predates the city whose marble streets visitors walk today. Finds around Çukuriçi and Ayasuluk Hill point to prehistoric and Bronze Age occupation, while a proposed link with the Hittite place called Apasa remains debated. Greek foundation stories center on the Ionian leader Androklos and the long-established cult of Artemis. Under Lydian ruler Croesus, a great marble temple rose at her sanctuary. Persian control, Greek alliances and the kingdoms formed after Alexander all shaped the city. Lysimachus moved the urban center to a new site, the setting for much of the later Roman city. As capital of the Roman province of Asia, Ephesus gained monumental streets, public buildings and the Library of Celsus. Christianity also took root here, and a major basilica was built over the traditional tomb of John in the sixth century AD. The Cayster’s sediment gradually separated the city from the sea. Activity shifted toward Ayasuluk, where later Turkish monuments help complete the story.