Ephesus

It is a vast site, not yet completely excavated but what is visible gives some idea of its original splendour and the names associated with it are evocative of its former life. The theater is huge and in a very outstanding position which dominates the view down Harbour Street leading to the harbour, long since silted up.

The Library of Celsus, whose facade has been carefully reconstructed from all original pieces, was built ca. AD 125 by Gaius Julius Aquila in memory of his father, and once held nearly 12,000 scrolls. Designed with an exaggerated entrance — so as to enhance its perceived size, speculate many historians — the building faces east so that the reading rooms could make best use of the morning light. An underground tunnel, marked by the simple figures of a woman, a heart, and a price, leads from the library to a nearby building believed to have been a drinking establishment or brothel.

A part of the site, St. John's Basilica, was built in the 6th century AD, under emperor Justinian I over the supposed site of the apostle's tomb. It is now surrounded by a Turkish town, Selcuk.

The Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, is represented only by one inconspicuous column, revealed during an archaeological excavation by the British Museum in the 1870s. Some fragments of frieze (which are insufficient to suggest the form the original) and other small finds were removed – some to London and some to the Archaeological Museum, Istanbul.