Does Ephesus still exist today?

The city does not — nobody has lived in it for around six hundred years. The ruins do, and they are among the most complete in the Mediterranean: the Library of Celsus still stands two storeys high, Curetes Street runs unbroken for several hundred metres, and the Grand Theater still seats a crowd. The nearest living town is Selcuk, a couple of kilometres away.

How big was Ephesus in biblical times?

Between 200,000 and 250,000 people in the first century AD, which made it the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, and the capital of the province of Asia. It had a harbour that reached deep inland, a theater seating 25,000, and the Temple of Artemis drawing pilgrims from three continents.

What was Ephesus like when Paul lived there?

Rich, crowded, cosmopolitan and intensely religious. It was a port city living on trade and on pilgrimage to Artemis, with a large Jewish community, a reputation across the empire for magic and occult practice — the "Ephesian letters" were famous charms — and a proud tradition of self-government under Roman oversight. All of that is visible in Acts 19: the magic books, the shrine trade, the synagogue, the civic assembly.

Where is the harbour Paul sailed into?

Under a green plain. The Cayster river silted the harbour up over centuries despite repeated dredging, and the sea is now some 5 kilometres west of the city. You can still walk the Arcadian Way, the grand colonnaded avenue that ran from the theater down to the docks — it now ends in a field, which tells the story of the city's death better than any caption.

How long does it take to walk the site?

Two to three hours at a comfortable pace, entering at the upper gate and walking downhill to the lower one. Doing it in reverse means climbing, which in summer is punishing. Add 45 minutes for the Terrace Houses, which need their own ticket.

Ephesus Ancient City — The Biblical Metropolis of Asia

When Paul walked into Ephesus around the year 52, he entered one of the greatest cities a Roman citizen could visit: the seat of the province of Asia, guardian of the Temple of Artemis, a harbor metropolis whose theater alone could seat an estimated twenty-five thousand people. When the Book of Acts says "all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord" from this one city, it is describing exactly what Ephesus was built to do — broadcast to a continent.

The city you walk today

A century and a half of excavation has uncovered a marble spine of monuments running downhill from the upper gate to the harbor plain: the Odeon where the city council met, the Temple of Hadrian, the Fountain of Trajan, the Baths of Scholastica, the Library of Celsus with its miraculous two-story facade, the Commercial Agora of the silversmiths, and the Grand Theater of the riot of Acts 19. Between them run streets grooved by chariot wheels, floored with mosaics, and scratched with the games, prayers and advertisements of people who lived here twenty centuries ago.

Curetes Street running downhill through Ephesus — Curetes Street — the marble avenue Paul knew, looking toward the Library of Celsus.

Ephesus in the New Testament

No other city gets so many pages of Scripture. Paul reasons in its synagogue (Acts 18:19), returns to teach daily in the hall of Tyrannus for two years (Acts 19:9–10), and sees converts burn their magic books at enormous cost (Acts 19:19). The silversmith Demetrius raises a riot in the theater that chants for two hours (Acts 19:28–34). Later Paul writes to the church here the letter we call Ephesians; Timothy stays as its first bishop (1 Timothy 1:3); and the risen Christ addresses Ephesus first among the seven churches of Revelation (Revelation 2:1–7). Tradition adds two more names: John the Evangelist, buried on the hill above, and the Virgin Mary, remembered in the house on Bulbul Mountain.

Rise, riot and slow farewell

Ephesus was already ancient when Rome inherited it — founded by Greek settlers around the 10th century BC, moved and rebuilt several times as its harbor silted. Under Augustus it became the provincial capital and boomed for two golden centuries. The riot of Acts 19 caught the city at its very peak. Decline came slowly and from the sea: the Cayster river kept pushing the coastline west, mile by mile, until ships could no longer reach the greatest harbor of Asia. An earthquake-battered, harbor-less Ephesus faded through the Byzantine centuries, and its people drifted to the fortified hill of Ayasuluk — today's Selcuk — leaving the marble city to the storks and the archaeologists.

The Arcadian Way seen from the Grand Theater of Ephesus — The Arcadian Way — the harbor avenue that once ended at the sea, now seven kilometers away.

Visiting with the Bible in hand

Every tour we run through Ephesus can be read as well as walked. Your guide will show you where the town clerk of Acts 19:35 addressed the assembly, where the silver workshops clustered, where early Christians carved crosses over pagan inscriptions — and will read the verses aloud at each spot, if you wish. Allow two to three hours for the city itself, and add the Terrace Houses if you possibly can.

Sources & further reading

UNESCO World Heritage: Ephesus — the official inscription and its criteria
Britannica: Ephesus — concise history of the city
Acts 19 (KJV) — Bible Gateway — the Ephesus chapter in full

Ephesus Ancient City