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Greek letters cut in rows into the marble face of a weathered pillar

Ephesus

Ephesus: A Hellenistic and Roman Metropolis

July 2006

Ephesus, Efes in Turkish, near Selçuk in western Türkiye preserves a sequence of settlements rather than a city founded once at a single coastal location. As the shoreline of the Kaystros estuary shifted westward, the settlement moved with it. Around 300 BCE, King Lysimachus established a planned Hellenistic city whose street grid and fortifications formed the basis of the later Roman metropolis. Ephesus eventually became the capital of the Roman province of Asia and an important port, administrative center, and place of pilgrimage.

The surviving site records urban life through monumental streets, theatres, baths, public latrines, fountains, temples, residences, inscriptions, and the Library of Celsus. Built during the second century CE, the library also served as the funerary monument of Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus, whose sarcophagus was placed beneath the building. Its collection is commonly estimated at approximately 12,000 scrolls.

Nearby, the Temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, although only foundations and architectural fragments survive. Ephesus also became an important center of early Christianity and hosted the Council of Ephesus in 431 CE. A shrine on Mount Koressos near the ancient city is traditionally identified as the House of the Virgin Mary. Popes Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI visited the shrine in 1967, 1979, and 2006.

UNESCO inscribed Ephesus on the World Heritage List in 2015. The 2006 photographs document its marble columns, carved reliefs, inscriptions, theatre seating, public latrines, and dispersed architectural fragments.

Broken fluted column drums and marble blocks strewn before a rubble wall at Ephesus
Row of truncated fluted columns lining a dirt street, green hillside behind
Weathered fluting on a marble column, further columns receding out of focus
Toppled Ionic capital with a spiral volute, its marble spotted with lichen
Stone arch and an Ionic column capital against a scrub-covered hillside
Arched stone passage set into a rubble wall, steps leading up to it
Tiers of ancient theatre seating with a stairway climbing between the rows
Weed-grown theatre seating rising toward a vaulted entrance at the top
Ionic column carrying a marble architrave block above dry summer grass
Three column capitals against blue sky, the central one carved with acanthus leaves
Carved marble frieze of palmettes and a rosette, broken between two piers
Fallen Ionic capital lying in dry grass among scattered architectural fragments
Greek letters cut into a weathered marble block, part of a longer inscription
Fluted marble column drums and a carved capital reused inside a stone wall
Marble relief of a winged female figure in flowing robes holding a wreath
Headless marble statue in a draped toga standing on a plinth among ruins
Curly-haired marble figure carved in high relief, clasping a garland
Receding row of marble column bases and shafts along a paved street, valley beyond
Re-erected marble pediment on two columns against a grassy hillside
Broken marble statue on a base carved with a Greek inscription
Greek letters cut in rows into the marble face of a weathered pillar
Six lines of Greek inscription on a moulded marble pier
Fallen cornice block carved with dentils, egg-and-dart and scrollwork
Spiral fluting on a marble column drum, a second drum blurred behind
Ornately carved arch with a female head at its keystone against blue sky
Keystone bust of a woman rising from carved leaves, framed by floral friezes
Female bust with curling hair carved into an arched marble pediment among acanthus scrolls
Weathered frieze of figures with shields and spears, blue sky above
Keyhole-shaped openings cut into the stone bench of the public latrines
Carved cornice, dentils and Corinthian capitals above a Greek inscription on a marble facade
Red-painted Greek inscription "ΑΡΕΤΗ ΚΕΛΣΟΥ" on a cracked marble block
Headless draped marble statue standing in a niche of the ruined facade
Deeply carved drapery across a headless statue's torso below an acanthus capital
Fragments of a red-lettered Greek inscription set into a plain wall
Layered marble frieze of egg-and-dart, dentil and scrolling foliage bands
Visitors' names and dates scratched densely into marble beside a carved pilaster
Greek inscription on a marble slab, formal capitals above later cursive lines marked with crosses
Interlocking meander pattern carved into a fallen marble cornice block
Garland-carved marble blocks set out in a grassy field among the ruins

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