Passing a day in the Ancient city Ephesus!

After Izmir tour, I went to Ephesus, local people call it Efes. In my childhood, I used to watch historical movies of Roman and Greek emperors like Gladiators, Spartacus and so on and always dreamed to visit those historical cities, theatres and libraries personally. So, it was my lifetime opportunity to visit the Ephesus, The Ancient Greek City.

Since I couldn’t afford a tourist guide, I personally read history about the city. It is better to have a guide to understand the city and history properly. The city was built around 10th century BC by Greek emperor and later on Roman emperor also reigned in the city.

I left my hostel around 7.30 am in the morning and reached to the Otogar (bus station) around 8.00 am. I heard the food in Ephesus or Selcuk area is very expensive. So, after having breakfast I took some extra food as well as water for lunch. From the Otogar, there are some microbuses those go to Selcuk/Efes. The micro bus will charge around $4 or $5 per person. And from Efes, I took local taxi (local taxi which carries multiple passengers at a time) which charged me $2. You can walk to Ephesus city but it will take around twenty minutes.

To enter the city, you need a museum card otherwise you have to pay for the ticket. The ticket price is around 10 dollars. I punched my museum card and enter into the city. My feelings were like I entered into the ancient era.

So, my journey to tenth thousand BC had started and I was walking on the road of the city. This is first symbol I came to noticed.

Pillar in the Ancient Ephesus city. Clicked by me. 

It is a pillar on the right side of the road, containing the ancient terracotta design on the top of it. I walked little ahead and I came to see there are a number of those pillars on the both side of the road. Going forward, I saw the historical Ephesus theatre.

Historical Ephesus Theatre. Clicked by me. 

I did not find any fighters in the theatre but I found him. The way he is moving looks like he is the king. Clicked by me. 

I couldn’t resist myself going there. So, I didn’t wait for long and ran towards the theatre. By passing a narrow tunnel I entered into the theatre. It was too big to cover with naked eyes. Then I went to the top of the stairs where people used to sit to watch different programs back then. I sat there and looked down. It felt like thousands of people were sitting with me and watching gladiators fighting. I cannot express my feelings in words.

Ephesus Theatre. The theatre is too big to captured in a single frame. Photo captured by me. 

Road between the Ephesus theatre and the Celsus library. Captured by me. 

From the Ephesus Theatre, I walked towards the Library of Celsus. The road between the celsus library and theatre were decorated with different sculptures and designed pillars.

My happy face says everything about my feelings. In front of Celsus Library. 

And finally I reached to the Celsus Library. The library is most famous tourist spot in Ephesus. The building was ruined and only the front part is still remaining from the ancient era. In the front side there are four statues including the statue of Celsus and Arete. The celsus tomb is just behind the library. The whole library is designed with ancient terracotta.

Gate of Augustus. Captured by me. 

On the right side of the library, you will see the gate of Augustus. There is something written in Greek letters on the top of the gate.

Temple of Hadrian. Captured by me. 

When you will go up through the street from the library, you will see the Temple of Hadrian on the left side of the road. Hadrian was a Roman emperor.

Going up, you are going to observe the rest of the city. I met the goddess Nike when I was roaming around the rest of the part.

Goddess Nike ruined sculpture. Captured by me. 

It was almost 3 pm in the afternoon when I finished visiting the city. Then I went to visit the house of virgin Marry. It almost seven kilometers away from the Ephesus. I took a taxi again to go there. It is small house and Turkish people claim that virgin Marry used to live there.

Around 6.00 pm I came to the Efes city and took microbus again to come back to the Izmir bus station.

Photo gallery