About Ancient City of Ephesus

Ephesus is an amazing ancient Greko-Roman city that is located at the western part of Turkey. This is the place one of the heritage of UNESCO and welcomes millions of the visitors in each year from all around world. Most of the visitors of Ephesus are from cruise ships that dock to Kusadasi, a resort city located just 20 minutes driving to Ephesus. They prefer to take Ephesus Shore Excursions from port of Kusadasi.
Beside Kusadasi Port, the other gateway to Ephesus is Izmir, that is the third largest city in Turkey. Many people come to Izmir by flight and book a Izmir Ephesus Tours to visit Ancient city of Ephesus.
In this text, we would like to give some tips in Ephesus to the visitors during their Ephesus Tours, what they can do, what can be visibled, where are the best places to take pictures, and of course history of Ephesus too.
Most of the people prefer to book Private Ephesus Tours that includes Mercedes Van, driver and Professional licensed Ephesus Tour Guide. This is the best way to explore Ephesus by a local tour guide.
There are two gates in Ephesus, upper and lower gate. It is much better to start to visit Ephesus from upper gate, walk down and complete the this excellent visit at the lower gate of Ephesus. Because, Ancient city of Ephesus is located at slope of the hill, and it is much better to walk from top to down. Some of the visitors come to Ephesus by their own vehicles, leave them to at upper gate and after tour have to come back to upper gate to take the vehicle back. But, it is so difficult since there are a lot walking in Ephesus, from up to down around 2 hours. Taking a taxi from lower gate to upper gate is recommended.
Ephesus ancient city is made of by marble, so here is very hot in the summer. It is highly recommended to take an umbrella or heat for the sun On the other hand, there is not a place that you can buy water in Ephesus. It is much better to arrange it from the entrance of Ephesus. And one of the most important thing that the visitors have to do that is no toilet facilities in Ephesus. So, if the people do not want to meet any problem with toilet, it is recommended to do this before to enter the city. Toilet is one the biggest problem during the Ephesus Tours.
Here is the very short history of Ephesus. Actually, many civilations came and conquered the city, but we will not tell of them, we would like to make the history of Ephesus more understandable and shorter. Just we want to inform you that when a civilation concquered the city, they never destroyed the city, but they started to charge very high taxes.
The city of Ephesus that we visit is the third location of the Ephesus. Acutally, there are 4 different location of Ephesus. There are not so much to see from first and second Ephesus. It is estimated that the first city was built at the slope of Ayasuluk Hill. According to last excivations we found some old potteries and ceramic that are date back around 6.000 BC. We believe that second Ephesus was built very closed to Temple of Artemis. There are nothing left from second Ephesus too, that is believed was built by the Greeks around 11 Century BC. After Greeks, Persians conquered the city, then the biggest enemy of the Persians, Alexandra the Great who came to Ephesus around 334 BC. When Alexandra died because of malaria in Babylon when he was 33, all of his empire was shared by his commanders. Then the city was moved to the place that we visit today. Around 1 century BC, Romans came here and settled very long time , around 700 years. After Romans, araps came here, then Ottoman Empire, then modern Turkish people live in Selcuk that is the fourth or final Ephesus.
One time, Ephesus was a port city that is the third largest city after Alexandria and Rome. They were making very good money from port since here was the city that is located between Asia, Europa and Africa. The trade was the main business in the city, there was a huge cash money changing in Ephesus. Beacuse, all the products were coming here from Asia, China, Iraq or Iran, and then to Europa and Africa by the ships. Today, foundation of the port can be visibled during Private Ephesus Tours , but today the ocean far to port around 3 miles a way. But, why ocean moved 3 miles a way from here, why there were 4 different Ephesus, why they had to move their city 4 times ? The reason is river, Meandros River that was bringing all the silts from mountain to the ocean, to the harbor of Ephesus. In many years, the city was silted up by that river, then here became like a swamp, then mosquitos came, then malaria started, many people started to die because of the malaria, finally this city was completely abandoned because of the malaria. And then Ephesus Ancient city was used like a marble quarry to use marbles and stones like recycle in the other cities and constructions. The other reason why the city was abandoned is the money. Because, the main business in Ephesus was trade. They were making the money from harbor, there was a huge business at port, but the port was silted up by the river. That’s why ships could not come here. Since the ships could not come here, they could not make the business anymore, so they were looking new cities to survive their business from port. That’s why, the city was completely abandoned because of this reason too. This is the basicly history of Ephesus that you can visit during Izmir Ephesus Tours. Beside Ephesus Ancient City, there are many sites around Ephesus as House of the Virgin Mary, Siant John Basilica, Temple of Artemis, Ephesus Museum , Sirince Village and Terrace Houses that is an another museum in Ephesus.