Entrance Fees for Ephesus, Mary's House & St John's

Ephesus has one main ticket for the archaeological site, plus separate tickets for the Terrace Houses inside it and for the major sites outside it. That structure catches people out more than the prices do — visitors regularly reach the Terrace Houses entrance, discover it is extra, and have to decide on the spot.

What you pay, and for what

Prices are set by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, quoted in euros, and revised at least once a year — usually upward, and sometimes mid-season. Treat the figures below as the shape of the budget rather than a guarantee, and check the official board at the gate on the day.

Prices last checked: August 2026. Children under a certain age enter free and student discounts exist, but the thresholds change; bring ID if you expect a concession.

The Museum Pass — and the catch

Turkey's well-known MüzeKart is for residents only, so most international visitors cannot use it. What foreign visitors can buy is the Museum Pass range (the Aegean pass, or the wider Türkiye pass), which bundles multiple sites over a set number of days. Whether it saves money depends entirely on how many ticketed sites you will actually visit — for a single day at Ephesus plus one or two extras it usually does not, and for a week of hard sightseeing it usually does. Note that the House of Virgin Mary is administered separately and is generally not covered.

Opening hours

The site opens every day of the year, roughly 08:00 to 19:00 in summer and 08:30 to 17:30 in winter, with last admission about an hour before closing. Hours shift with the season and with daylight, and the sites outside the ruins keep their own slightly different times. The House of Virgin Mary in particular closes earlier than the main site — a classic reason self-planned days come apart in the late afternoon.

Queues, cards and practicalities

Card payment is accepted at the ticket offices and is much the smoother option; cash euros are frequently refused, and Turkish lira is not always welcome at the euro-priced windows. Queues are worst between roughly 10:00 and 13:00, when the cruise ships and the Izmir coaches converge — early morning and the last two hours of the afternoon are noticeably calmer. On our tours the tickets are pre-arranged, which removes the queue entirely.

Is it worth the money?

Ephesus is not a cheap site by Turkish standards, and the honest answer is that the main ticket is worth it for almost everyone, while the Terrace Houses ticket is worth it for anyone with the slightest interest in how people actually lived — nowhere else in the Mediterranean can you walk through Roman rooms this intact. If your budget is tight and you must choose one extra, choose those.