Ephesus

Ephesus is the Roman city, not a backdrop. We walk it downhill on purpose. The upper entrance puts us at the high end of the site, and the street falls toward the old harbor. Cruise groups tend to arrive later and clog the marble. We meet Fisun at the museum at 09:00, then go on to the site together.

What you are walking through was a great city of the Roman province of Asia, a port that eventually lost its sea. The Cayster river silted the harbor. The long harbor street, the Arcadian Way, used to run to the water. It now runs to a marshy plain. That is why the city feels stranded, and why it survived as ruins instead of being rebuilt into a modern port.

Down the hill, in order if we keep moving: Curetes Street, the Temple of Hadrian tucked against the street, the public latrines (worth the thirty seconds — the seating is the point), the Library of Celsus, and the commercial agora. The library facade is the photograph. It was a tomb and a library, early second century, rebuilt after earthquakes. The facade is a stage set in the best sense: two stories of columns, standing because it was put back up, not because it never fell.

The Great Theatre is the bowl on the hillside, large enough for the city. You can sit. You do not need a lecture to feel the scale. If time is short, theatre and library are the two that carry the day; the rest is the walk between them.

Terrace Houses are separate, and they are why we bought the add-on in our notes. These are hillside villas with mosaics and wall painting, under a modern roof. It is the only place on the site where you see how a rich house actually looked, rather than a street of walls. Do them while the light is still good. Our notes are explicit that night hours are over for October.

Two sites sit outside the main fence. The Temple of Artemis, once one of the seven wonders, is mostly a single re-erected column in a wet field toward Selçuk. It is free on our page, and it is a five-minute stop if we are already passing, not a second morning. The House of the Virgin Mary is up on Bülbül Dağı, a shrine, not a ruin in the Ephesus street grid. Our page prices it around €12 and card only, and only if the day includes it. It is optional. Do not let it eat the morning.

We sleep at Akanthus in Selçuk, the second of two nights. Dinner is in Şirince, the old Greek hill village a short ride away. Kırkınca Arispel first, Sirincem backup. Fisun is booked and paid and finishes in Şirince. Keep cash for the taxi back — about €70 has been quoted each way — and have the restaurant or Akanthus call it if Uber is empty. Public transport dies at 18:00 on the winter timetable.