The Ruins of Ephesus: A City Out of Time

I’ve seen stunning Roman Aqueducts. I’ve sat in theaters and colosseums (though not The Colosseum). I’ve perched my butt on Roman toilets and walked on Roman roads and Roman Hippodromes.

But I’ve never seen anything like Ephesus. I’ve never seen a Roman home with original tiling. I’ve never seen rows of shops with the original carved signs detailing the shops offerings. And most importantly, I’ve never seen it all together, so well preserved as a single city.

That’s Ephesus, a true step back in time. A true city preserved like no other.

Origins

Like a lot of Roman things, Ephesus was first Greek.

The Greeks built Ephesus in 1200 BC on Ayasuluk hill and surrounding areas, then constructed a temple to the their patron goddess Artemis, which was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. By the 7th century BC, Ephesus was one of the wealthiest cities in the Mediterranean.

In 547 BC Turkey was conquered by the Achaemenid Persians. The Temple of Artemis was destroyed by fire in 356 BC (the same night Alexander the Great was born). In 334 BC, Alexander liberated Ephesus from Persian rule. He offered to rebuild the Temple of Artemis, but the Ephesians refused, saying that is was not seemly for one god to build a temple to another. *eye roll*

When Lysimachus was given rule of Turkey (remember that after Alexander died, his empire was divided among his generals, Lysimachus being one of them), he had the city of Ephesus moved to a more defensible location, blocking the sewer system in the old city to force the citizens to move. It is this New Ephesus that we visit today.

“New,” but still dated to the BCs.

When Attalus III left his kingdom to the Romans in 133 BC, the Romans gained the city of Ephesus. Under Roman rule, Ephesus experienced it’s most prosperous era. Most of the ruins seen today are from this time.

And so, it begins, walking in the footsteps of history. Treading on the very same marble-paved roads that Roman men, women, and children walked upon. Soldiers marched, horses galloped, children played over two thousand years ago, and here we are stepping on those worn stones with our flip flops and tennis shoes.

Most Roman cities that can be visited today (like Rome) stayed cities for centuries afterward, and so the Roman ruins were continually built over until you have the modern mixed with old, and thus only the very cool is preserved (the Forum, the Colosseum, etc). But Ephesus was eventually abandoned, so everything is preserved.

There are complete roads, shops, fountains, and homes. Even the water pipes previously buried under the road lay almost fully intact.

There is something cool and amazing and so very real–every day life items rather than just the most amazing pieces–every where you look. It’s both grounding–because you get to see the toilets, the water pipes, the colonnades–and intensely unreal because it’s so ancient, yet so well preserved and complete.

Ephesus was a wealthy city, so it’s fantastical features are numerous.

Images carved in stone served as decoration, but also were used to identify different shops since not everyone could read.

Terrace Houses

Wealthy Romans enjoyed terraced houses in the center of the city. They had frescoed walls, mosaic floors, running water, and a heating system.

The Celsus Library

This is the crowning ruin of the city of Ephesus.

The Celsus Library was the third largest of the ancient world. It could hold 12,000 scrolls. It was built by the son of Celsus to honor his father, who was a Roman senator, in 110 AD.

The statues in the niches symbolize the virtues of Celsus’s father: wisdom, knowledge, intelligence, and valor.

I find Roman culture very fascinating because vestiges of it exist today. For example, Celsus built a great public work to honor his father. It was very common for wealthy citizens to build fountains, agoras, and other public works because they could. They sought to better the cities they lived in, and of course get their names on things that would last a long time. This was what it meant to be a true Roman citizen.

As I said, this again exists today. Wealthy people donate money to build museums, libraries, sports fields, schools. This is really different from some other eras of history. For example, I can’t say that I know about a lot of Medieval lords and monarchs who built such things for their people. I’m sure the reason this thinking returned to us was in great part due to the Renaissance Era, when the glorification of Greek and Roman cultures overran the chivalry and fiefdoms of the Middle Ages, and the idea of citizenship again came back into society.

The Theater

The Theater can hold 24,000 people.

Now, imagine St. Paul preaching to the Romans here, as he did in the 1st century AD.

We stood where he stood. Doesn’t it give you the chills?

The Agora

Christian Events

While Ephesus is famous in it’s own right for it’s amazingly preserved ruins, it also claims fame from several biblical and historic events.

Laslty, the divine motherhood of Mary was also confirmed during the Council of Ephesus, in the place where she supposedly spent her last days.

Last Days of Roman Ephesus

We walked through the veil of history for hours, and could have explored for hours more. Restoration at Ephesus is still ongoing, so the only thing that convinced me not to hide in one of the terrace houses and become a permanent squatter in this amazing place is the promise that when I return one day, there will be even more to see!