The ancient Roman city 10 times the size of Disneyland

By Maureen O’Hare, CNN

Ephesus, Turkey (CNN) — The security lines at the entrance move with airport-like efficiency. Beyond them, the concrete of the 21st century falls away, replaced by creamy pillars and marble paving stretching into the distance, with green hills beyond.

It feels like stepping back 2,000 years in time.

In a country overflowing with archaeological treasures, the ancient city of Ephesus, in western Turkey’s İzmir Province, remains the crown jewel. Around 2.5 million people visited the remains of this Greco-Roman port city in 2025. Founded in the 10th century BCE the 1,600-acre UNESCO World Heritage site is around 10 times the size of Disneyland — packed with so many historical marvels it’s almost overwhelming.

And it’s always been popular.

“In the summer season, 70,000 ships were coming to Ephesus,” says tour guide Fatma Günaltay, leading visitors downhill along the sacred road that once connected the city to the 6th-century BCE Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. “This city was very wealthy.”

Built in the estuary of what was once the River Kaystros, near the Aegean coast, Ephesus thrived as a trading hub connecting east and west. Leaders including Alexander the Great and Antony and Cleopatra left their mark here. The ruins explored today largely date from the city’s time as a busy Roman metropolis and remain among the best-preserved examples from that era.

Ancient elegance

Curetes Street, one of the city’s three main thoroughfares and its streets are still paved with marble that can become slippery when it rains. Statues of prominent citizens line the route, many missing heads or limbs, while religious and civic buildings once painted in bright colors now appear butter-yellow.

Günaltay explains that silk and incense shops once lined the street, and flowering trees shaded sumptuously dressed pedestrians from the blazing sun. Oval holes in the walls once held lamps to light the street after dark. Summertime night tours have recently been introduced, which aim to help visitors imagine how the city once felt after sunset.

The Temple of Hadrian, a modest-sized Corinthian-style structure facing Curetes Street, is among the most elegant buildings in Ephesus. Completed in 138 CE with a wooden roof, its ornate eight-meter-tall arches still stand nearly 2,000 years later. The inner arch features a relief of Medusa, the snake-headed female figure in Greek or Roman mythology, used here to ward off evil spirits.

At the bottom of the hill stands the city’s star attraction and most photographed landmark: the Library of Celsus. While you should never judge a book by its cover, only the facade of this 56-foot-tall Roman masterpiece survives. Blue squares of sky cut through the empty windows, while tapered marble columns create an optical illusion that makes the two-story structure even grander.

More than 12,000 scrolls were once stored inside this second-century center of learning before a fire destroyed them in 262 CE. The building was also a monumental tomb, constructed by Consul Gaius Julius Aquila in honor of his father, Gaius Julius Celus Polemeanus, who is buried here.

Brothel advertisement

The less cerebral side of life is visible just across the street. The remains of a brothel sit opposite the library, and a nearby carving on a paving stone on Curetes Street is believed to be one of the world’s earliest advertisements. Featuring the outline of a foot, a money purse, and a woman, it suggests that visitors with adult-sized feet and sufficient funds could purchase the services offered there — an early version of the “you must be this tall to ride” signs at theme parks.

Built around the 1st century CE, the brothel includes a ground-floor reception area and bathing pool, with an upper story for entertaining clients. A statue of Priapus, the Greek and Roman fertility god traditionally depicted with an outsize phallus, was found during excavation work here and is now on display in the Ephesus Museum in nearby Selçuk.

Romans are renowned for their engineering skills, even when it came to handling sewage. At the city’s public latrines, 36 holes upon which people took their comfort breaks line the walls above a drainage system. It’s believed those using them cleaned themselves afterward using a xylospongium — a sponge on a stick, dipped in vinegar.

The latrines formed part of the Scholastica Baths, the city’s largest bathing complex, capable of accommodating up to 1,000 people, and an important social center.

“The guys are using the Roman baths as a cafeteria,” says Günaltay. “They are meeting in Roman Baths for talking, for gossip, sometimes for discussing the gladiator games and elections of the Roman Empire, important issues.”

Visitors can explore the nearby Terrace Houses — seven well-preserved Roman aristocratic homes — for an extra 15 euros, on top of the 40-euro entrance fee to the archaeological site. Inside are private baths which were supplied with hot and cold water through clay pipes, along with painted frescoes, colorful mosaics and handwritten wall graffiti.

Keeping the flame alive

“The Prytaneion is the second-most important building of Ephesus, after the Artemis temple,” says Günaltay, pointing to the arched columns that remain. Priestesses once kept a sacred flame burning there day and night, believed to represent the life force of the city. “If the holy fire is alive,” the city is alive, she says, adding that an extinguished flame would signal that “the ending of the Roman Empire is coming. So the people are very scared of this reality.”

Two statues of Artemis were discovered here, depicting the Greek goddess of hunting and abundance with fertility symbols around her torso — interpreted variously as breasts or testicles. They are now on display at the Ephesus Museum.

The Temple of Artemis, whose origins date back as early as the 7th century BCE, was one of the largest Greek temples ever built. Arsinoe IV, the younger sister of Cleopatra, was executed on the temple’s steps in 41 CE by order of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. The temple, more than 330 feet long and 150 feet wide (roughly 100 meters by 46 meters), was burnt down in 356 by an arsonist named Herostratus. He was executed for the deed and the case is considered one of the earliest recorded acts of terrorism. Today, only one reconstructed pillar remains at the original temple site, located outside of the main archaeological park.

Early Christian center

Ephesus later became an important religious center in early Christianity. From 52 to 55 CE, the apostle Saint Paul spent three years here preaching the Gospel and is said to have brought Mary, the mother of Jesus, here to spend her final days. The House of the Virgin Mary is a popular site of Christian pilgrimage on the slopes of Mount Koressos, about three miles from the archaeological site.

One of the city’s star attractions is the huge 25,000-seat Great Theater, used for theatrical performances, public assemblies, religious ceremonies and, in the Roman era, gladiatorial battles.

“Your seats are separated according to your occupation,” says Günaltay, explaining the strict social hierarchy that was in place, with people divided by social class, status and gender.

The theater appears in the Bible in “Acts of the Apostles” as the site of a riot sparked by a silversmith named Demetrius, angered by Saint Paul’s preaching against the Artemis statues from which he made his trade.

Harbour Street once a bustling colonnaded road leading to the city’s now-dry port, where traders once sold luxury imported goods. Over centuries, silt gradually pushed the shoreline further away, contributing to Ephesus’ abandonment by the time of the Ottoman era in the 15th century.

Looking at the arid landscape today, with the sea roughly four miles away, it’s hard to picture the port as it once was, but this could be set to change.

Günaltay says there are government plans to refill the canal and reconnect the harbor to the sea. “The seawater will come here, just like in ancient times.” The project, first announced in 2017, will reportedly include the construction of a new canal and marina for excursion boats. No timeline for completion has been announced.

If realized, the project could allow visitors to once again arrive by sea at Ephesus, for the first time in more than two millennia.

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