Ancient Ephesus (Part 1)

We had a very early start on Monday 4 May as we wanted to be at Ephesus early in the day to avoid the worst of the crowds. The evening before, Nicky had walked up to the dolmuş station, 30 mins from the marina, to find out the departure times to Selçuk, 14 miles away and the closest town to ancient Ephesus. Happily, there was one English speaker working at the station and he confirmed that a dolmuş leaves for Selçuk every 15mins from 7am until about 9pm. With a 2km walk from the dolmus drop-off point in Selcuk (so our guidebook said) it was clear that from leaving BV it would take us 1½ to 2 hours to get to Ephesus.

Photo of a model of the stadium

Kuşadasi is an unremarkable, busy, dusty city (population about 100,000 including environs). Consequently, the dolmuş station is very busy and as Selçuk is the nearest town to ancient Ephesus, the dolmuş there gets extremely crowded with tourists and locals. It takes about 45 mins to get from Kuşadasi to the drop-off point for ancient Ephesus, but the fare is only 6 Turkish Lira per person each way (approx £1.50, excellent value!). At the drop-off point were a number of taxis, all touting for our business: “2km to Ephesus” the drivers said, whilst standing right under an enormous brown ‘historic monument’ roadsign which clearly stated that it was only 1km to the site! It was relatively early, and cool, and we felt that the exercise would be good for us. In the event we also benefitted by being able to see some of the parts of ancient Ephesus, the Gymnasium of Vedius and the stadium, that are not on the ‘route’ inside the ancient monument.

Our guidebook recommends starting at the upper gate to the site, more, it implies, to avoid having to walk uphill through the ruins in the heat of the day. We entered, because of where the dolmuş driver had let us off, at the lower gate and in retrospect it seemed a good way to see the ruins as you are almost immediately on the city’s most impressive thoroughfare, the Harbour Street, and at the enormous theatre, which was built to seat 24,000 people.

Most of the surviving ruins of Ephesus are from Imperial Roman times although, apparently, the gates and towers of the Hellanistic circuit walls are impressive examples of craftsmanship. Unfortunately, the circuit walls now only stand high on the crest of the mountain to the south of the city, so we didn’t summon up the energy to take a close up look. We might have got a decent photo of the stadium from a high vantage point but there was so much else to see that we pushed on to Harbour Street.

The view down Harbour Street, a drawing of how the grand gate at the harbour end would have looked, and a model showing the proximity to the theatre

Harbour Street, as its name implies, linked the old port with the theatre. It was also known as the Arcadian Way, after the Byzantine Emperor Arcadius who remodelled it in AD 395-408. Unfortunately, when we visited, the street was closed to tourists from a hundred metres or so northwest of the theatre all the way down to the site of the ancient harbour (now silted up). This meant that we were unable to view either the harbour gymnasium or the harbour baths and nor could we look back up the roadway from the harbour to the theatre, which is how so many people arriving in Ephesus would have viewed the city. In its prime, Harbour Street was 500m long x 11m wide with porticoes and shops on both sides. An inscription has also been found which says that at night the street was lit by 50 lamps; only Rome and Antioch shared this distinction at that time.

The theatre with the ruins of a gymnasium in the foreground     

Tunnels under theatre stage

The 24000 seat theatre was originally constructed during the reign of Lysimakhos and was built into the slope of Mount Pion. Much of the excavation of the site has been carried out by Austrian archaeologists who also carried out a lot of reconstruction. Unfortunately, they did not know at that time just how corrosive a material concrete can be (and, let’s face it, it doesn’t really look right either) so the Turkish authorities are now re-doing significant parts of the reconstruction, using what look to be stainless steel I-beams and supporting struts, and replacing concrete with stone blocks and lime mortar.

View from the theatre showing Harbour Road which led to the port    

However, the view from the top of the theatre is fabulous and you can see clearly all the way down to the site of the ancient harbour where, in spring, there are still large areas of pooling water. The theatre itself has excellent acoustics, although apparently in its day, these were further enhanced by placing clay or bronze sounding vessels around the auditorium.

Marble Way

From the theatre we strolled along Marble Way, a wide, colonnaded avenue which had been paved marble in a herringbone pattern.

Tetragonas Agora (lower agora)

To the west of the Marble Way (on our right as we walked from the theatre) are the ruins of the lower agora, the Tetragonos Agora, which was the main commercial centre of Ephesus. Constuction of the agora began in the 3^rd century BC and it remained functional until the 7^th century AD, albeit with much reconstruction and development over the centuries, some of it forced by earthquake damage. Most of the ruins we see today date from the reign of Emporer Augustus (3^rd century BC). The central square courtyard was surrounded by twin aisled stoas with 2-storeyed shops. On the eastern side, abutting the Marble Way are the remins of a basilica which was possibly used as a courthouse.

Southern gate of the Tetragonas Agora (lower agora)

In its southeastern corner is an impressive gate with 3 passageways which leads to the square in front of the Library of Celcus. An inscription on the gate suggests that it was built in the 3^rd century BC by 2 slaves who had been freed by Emperor Augustus, and to whom it has been dedicated. Other inscriptions in the gate set out the rules and price lists applicable in the agora. However, the agora’s main entrance, a 17m wide gate, was in its northwestern corner adjoining Harbour Way, so providing a direct link from the harbour to the agora.

Library of Celcus

The Library of Celcus, at the southern end of the Marble Way, has perhaps become the eponimous ruin of Ephesus. We were fortunate to have arrived quite early in the day and the building’s façade was glowing in the relatively soft morning light. When we returned down Curetes Street, which runs directly towards the library from the Hercules Gate and the upper gate above that, at about midday, the light was much harsher and the building looked quite stark with large areas in deep shade.

The library has been very symapthetically restored, though it is rather reminiscent of a Hollywood set, all frontage, little behind. It was built as a heroon (a monument to a cult figure) in AD110-17 by Gaius Julius Aquila for his father, Gaius Julius Celcus, who is entombed under the western wall. There are some interesting information boards inside which explain how the building was constructed, with tying pins and molten lead (poured into crevices between the stone blocks) being used to secure the structure. The library also had an early version of climate control to help to preserve the books, in parchment rolls, stored within it. The rolls were kept on shelves in rectangular niches built into the inner wall of the library. Between this inner wall and the external wall was an air gap – an early example of cavity wall construction. [Ed: I wonder if Gaius Julius Aquila had problems with salesmen trying to persuade him to purchase cavity wall insulation?].

Gate of Hadrian

The partially reconstructed Gate of Hadrian stands just southeast of the Library of Celcus, at the lower end of the Street of the Curetes, which leads uphill to the upper entrance to Ephesus. The Gate of Hadrian was a ceremonial gate with 3 passageways (the centre one designed for use by chariots) on top of which were 2 further layers of colunms and arches. Stautes of gods, members of the imperial family and the gate’s commissioners were set into the arches and between the columns along with a statue of Artemis, the protectress of the city. In May, priests known as curetes, would process through the Gate of Hadrian on their way from Mt Bülbül to Ortygia, the mythical birthplace of Artemis.

(L) View onto Marble Way from a building on the Street of the Curetes. (R) Mosaic paving    

From the Gate of Hadrian we started uphill along the Street of the Curetes. From the upper levels of some of the buildings at the bottom of the street we gained good views across the site. The Street of the Curetes runs down the valley between Ephesus’ 2 hills. It was marble paved and the city’s sewage pipe ran beneath it. In early Roman times it was bordered by colonnaded porticoes and walkways with shops off them and in front of each of the columns was a bronze or marble statue.

Public latrine

At the lower end of the street, conveniently close to the lower agora, was the public latrine (public for men that is, women were not allowed in). In the centre was an open-air pool surrounded by columns which supported a roof to cover the lavatories. In front of the seats ran a channel which supplied warm water for washing. In their day, the floor was covered with a geometric fresco and the walls tiled with marble. Not unreasonably, for the use of such a luxourious facility a fee was charged.

Temple of Hadrian

Further up the hill, the Street of the Curetes was lined with fountains, extravagent houses, baths and temples. The richly decorated Temple of Hadrian was one such example, although the friezes in situ today are copies (the originals are displayed in the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk).

By this time the gentle flow of coached in visitors had started to increase quite dramatically; apparently Ephesus receives about 3 million visitors each year. So, to take a break from working against the flow, we detoured right and bought tickets to visit Terrace House 2.

Kuşadasi, Turkey