Ephesus

How to visit without melting or queuing

Ephesus has two entrances, and which one you start at decides how hard your morning is. Begin at the Upper (Magnesia) Gate and walk down to the Lower Gate, and the whole route is a gentle descent — past Curetes Street, the public latrines and the Hadrian Temple — that delivers you to the Library of Celsus without a single uphill stretch. Start at the bottom and you’ll be trudging back up the marble in the heat. If you drive or take a taxi, have it drop you at the top and meet you at the bottom; a guided tour from Kuşadası arranges that drop-off as standard.

The €40 site ticket gets you the main avenue and the Great Theatre, but not the Terrace Houses — that’s a separate €15, and it’s the one add-on we’d actually pay for. Under their protective roof sit the best-preserved Roman house mosaics and frescoes on this coast, and crucially it’s covered and shaded when the rest of the site is a furnace. Pay by card, or carry Turkish lira for cash: euro notes are refused at the state ticket window even though prices are quoted in euros.

Does Ephesus live up to the hype?

Be at the gate the moment it opens — 08:00 in summer. The cruise coaches and bus tours from Kuşadası land around 10:00 and pack the Library terrace until mid-afternoon, and there is almost no shade anywhere; the sun bounces straight off the white stone. Arrive first and you can stand in front of the Celsus facade nearly alone. Carry water and a hat, and don’t plan to be there at midday in July or August. Allow about two hours for the main walk, three if you add the Terrace Houses.

Yes, and it’s not close — this is the most complete Greco-Roman city you can walk through in Turkey, and the Library facade earns every bit of its fame. Pair it with the House of the Virgin Mary up the hill or the museum in Selçuk if you’ve a full day, but don’t try to bolt it onto a half-day cruise stop and a beach as well. Give Ephesus the morning and it gives you the lot.