Ephesus
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Ephesus, 2015); Roman Provincial Capital Of Asia · Selcuk, Izmir
Ephesus was the Roman capital of Asia Minor and a port city of perhaps a quarter of a million people, and enough of its marble core has been re-erected that the walk down Curetes Street reads as a city rather than a field of stones. The set piece is the facade of the Library of Celsus, rebuilt from its own fallen blocks in the 1970s, but the Great Theatre that seated around twenty-four thousand, the Temple of Hadrian, the public latrines and the terrace houses with their mosaics and painted walls under a modern roof are what turn an hour into half a day. The harbour that made the city rich silted up, which is why the ruins now sit several kilometres inland, and why the city was abandoned rather than built over - the reason so much of it survives at all. Cruise ships dock at Kusadasi twenty minutes away, so the site runs on a daily tide of visitors that is easy enough to arrive ahead of if you start early or come late.
Acarlar Mahallesi, Efes Harabeleri, Selcuk, Selcuk, Izmir, Turkiye
Open daily, with longer hours in summer than in winter and last entry well before closing. The Terrace Houses inside the site keep the same days but have their own ticket and sometimes shorter hours. Summer evening opening has been trialled in some seasons. Cruise days are the busiest. Check before travelling.