Day Four: Ephesus, After the Sea Receded

On December 23, 2025, we awoke to find that the cruise ship had sailed several hundred kilometres south from Çanakkale and docked at Kuşadası. Built into the hills, the city emerged tier by tier through the light mist. It faces the Aegean Sea, with the Anatolian hinterland at its back, and serves as an important gateway inland. More important still, however, is the site of a once-magnificent ancient city nearby: Ephesus.

We were not due to leave for Ephesus until noon, so we used the spare time to walk about ten minutes along the waterfront to Güvercinada, or Pigeon Island, beside the port.

The island is small, and its most conspicuous feature is Güvercinada Castle, an Ottoman-era coastal fortress. Apparently admission used to be free, but now that the cruise ships bring more visitors, everyone must pay a €10 “toll” to enter.

The highest part of the castle has been converted into a small museum. There is not much room, nor could the displays be called systematic; most concern maritime trade and coastal defence. The statue by the entrance depicts Barbaros Hayreddin Paşa, one of the Ottoman Empire’s most important naval commanders of the sixteenth century.

Sunlight slanting between the stone walls reminded us that the hour was getting late. It was time to return to the pier and meet the group before setting off for the day’s true destination: the ruins of Ephesus.

After a drive of about thirty minutes, we arrived at the ancient city of Ephesus. These remarkably well-preserved Greek and Roman ruins once formed the capital of the Roman province of Asia, famed for its monumental architecture. Ephesus was also an important centre of early Christianity; tradition holds that Saint Paul lived and preached here.

This was the Upper, or State, Agora, an area that included important buildings and thoroughfares such as the council chamber and the Sacred Way,and formed the city’s administrative and political centre.。

This was once the site of the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Next came Curetes Street, the main thoroughfare of Ephesus.

Rows of stone columns extend along the road, their shadows falling across the ground in the afternoon sun. Where crowds once pressed through a densely built city, only column bases and scattered stones remain to sketch the outlines of its former splendour.

The arch reveals the consummate stonework of ancient builders.

Layer upon layer of arches is set into the massive stone walls, suggesting that this was once a building of some importance. Masonry from different periods sits alongside traces of later repairs, leaving time itself visibly accumulated within the ruins.

This relief depicts Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. She appears in flight, holding a laurel wreath as a symbol of triumph and glory. The name and swoosh of today’s Nike sportswear brand were inspired by this figure.

The Memmius Monument was built in the first century AD, during the reign of Augustus, to commemorate Gaius Memmius, grandson of the Roman ruler Sulla. The structure takes the form of a four-sided arch.

The monument combines Roman and Greek architectural styles. Fragments of its reliefs and statues depict Memmius himself and his grandfather Sulla.

Most distinctive of all are the surviving arches of the Temple of Hadrian. Built between AD 110 and 135 to commemorate the Roman emperor Hadrian’s visit to Ephesus, they bear reliefs of figures from Greek mythology, including Dionysus, the god of wine, and the head of Medusa. With its characteristic Corinthian columns, the temple is considered one of the representative works of Roman imperial architecture.

Looking across, we caught sight of the site’s most iconic landmark in the distance: the library built to commemorate Celsus, a governor of the Roman Empire,Celsuswas buried in a crypt beneath the library. Built in the early second century AD, it was once the third-largest library in the Roman Empire, surpassed only by those of Alexandria and Pergamon.

I have seen Roman theatres large and small in many places, but never one on this scale. It could hold some 25,000 spectators; without being told otherwise, one might easily mistake it for an ancient stadium.

Beside the Great Theatre are these public latrines, built in the sixth century and offering an example of the sophisticated Roman sanitation system. Latrines were generally communal, open-air spaces where people socialised while attending to their needs. Entertainment gossip and political and financial news alike were said to circulate here. Beneath the seats ran a channel of continuously flowing water.

The ancient stone sarcophagi arranged along Harbor Street reflect the funerary customs and artistic styles of the Greek and Roman periods, while preserving mysteries about the historical figures once laid within them.

Broken columns, scattered stones, and broad streets all recall the prosperity and order that once prevailed here. Though the ruins now lie far from the shore, this was once a bustling port where ships, merchants, and ideas converged. Then, as the harbour gradually silted up, they slowly withdrew. History does not always end abruptly; sometimes it changes quietly, slowly, and irreversibly. The same remains true today.

Before leaving the ruins, we stopped briefly at the gift shop. Then we boarded the bus back, and as the ancient city’s colonnades and theatre receded behind us, the journey shifted from history back to the present.

Back at the port, we were taken to a carpet shop. The tempo here was entirely different from that of the ruins: someone demonstrated carpet weaving while explaining the dyes, knotting techniques, and origins of the patterns. It all felt like a familiar, carefully constructed piece of tourist-shopping theatre—the presenter claimed to have been received by the British royal family, while sales proceeds supposedly helped provide work for girls from ethnic minorities and preserve intangible cultural heritage, among other worthy causes.

That said, the demonstration was genuinely eye-opening and gave us a sense of the exquisite craftsmanship of Turkish carpets. Stepping barefoot onto a real silk carpet for the first time—the smooth, faintly cool sensation beneath my feet—was rather magical. But then came the hard sell, with salespeople shadowing us almost one-on-one, and it began to feel as though we had wandered into some kind of pyramid-selling operation. At the first opportunity, we quietly slipped away.

This group of modern sculptures near the port depicts figures raising doves of peace, symbolising freedom and new beginnings. Coming upon them just after escaping the carpet shop, we really did feel as though we had emerged into the light.

A delighted child cradles a large fish, pointing to the simplest livelihood of this port city: living by the sea.

A crate of freshly caught fish is frozen in a streetside tableau, elevating everyday labour into public art—true to life, yet not without romance.

In the distance stands the Hand of Peace, a giant white hand holding aloft a black bird. It symbolises peace and freedom, as well as the city’s welcome to visitors. A visual emblem of this port city, it often appears on souvenirs.

Nearby, the strains of a violin slowly unfurled in the sea breeze, the music drifting leisurely into the distance on the waves.

Two wine glasses rested on the stone wall beside a fishing rod. The sea rose and fell gently, and our cruise ship lay quietly at anchor in the distance. In a scene like this, whether any fish were biting no longer mattered. The music was still playing, the wine was not yet finished, but the ship on the horizon was already calling us back.

Reluctant though we were to leave, it was time to board. Over the course of the day, we had travelled from the ruins of Ephesus back to everyday life at the port, from the weight of history to the warmth and bustle of the present, until the rhythm gradually settled once more upon the sea. Night would soon close this page, while the route ahead pointed towards our next destination: Rhodes.

Treasures of the Ancient Mediterranean Itinerary

The original article has been moved to this site.

Day Four: Ephesus, After the Sea Receded

Treasures of the Ancient Mediterranean Itinerary

Continue Reading

In This Series

More posts

Day Seven: A Whirlwind Tour of Athens

Day Five: Rhodes, City of the Knights

Day Six: Christmas—Taking Gains and Losses as They Come

Day Four: Ephesus, After the Sea Receded