Ephesus: what you see, and what is worth the extra ticket

Ephesus is the best-preserved Roman city in the eastern Mediterranean and the one stop every visitor to Turkey has heard of. Day 5 of our west-coast tours is a full morning here with the guide before the drive down to Fethiye. Here is what is included and what is optional.

The main site

You enter at the top gate and walk downhill through the city, which is the right way round: the slope does the work and the Library of Celsus appears below you at the end of Curetes Street. On the way: the Odeon, the Prytaneion where the eternal flame burned, the Temple of Hadrian, the Hercules Gate, the public latrines (yes, everyone photographs them), the brothel sign carved in the paving, and then the two-storey library facade, rebuilt from its own fallen stones in the 1970s. Beyond it the Marble Road leads to the Great Theatre, which held 24,000 people and where St Paul preached against the silversmiths of Artemis. Allow two to three hours; wear a hat, there is almost no shade.

The Terrace Houses

Inside the site but behind a separate ticket, the Terrace Houses are the homes of wealthy Ephesians under a modern roof: mosaic floors, frescoed walls, marble-lined dining rooms, heating under the floors. It is the most vivid part of Ephesus and the ticket is included in our tours - most day-trippers skip it, which is why it is also the quietest.

The Temple of Artemis

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, four times the size of the Parthenon. Today a single reconstructed column stands in a marshy field with a stork's nest on top. It takes ten minutes and is worth it for the scale of what was lost.

The House of the Virgin Mary

A small stone chapel in the hills above the site, identified in the 19th century from the visions of a German nun and visited by three popes. Christians and Muslims both come; there is a wall of wishes and three springs. It is a short detour that we include when time allows.

The Ephesus Museum and the Basilica of St John

Both in Selcuk, the town next door - see our Selcuk guide. The museum holds the finds from the Terrace Houses and the two famous statues of Artemis.

Ephesus is on Istanbul to Fethiye and every longer route that starts in Istanbul; the night before is in the Kusadasi / Selcuk area, so you are at the gate when it opens.