Timeline of Ephesus: 3,000 Years of History, Dated

Ephesus is about 3,000 years old as a Greek and Roman city and much older as a place: Greek colonists founded it around 1000 BC on a hill that had already been the Bronze Age town of Apasa, and the last inhabitants left the marble city in the 15th century. Between those two dates it was Ionian, Lydian, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman — and since 1863 it has belonged to the archaeologists.

Ephesus history timeline

Timeline of the different civilizations in Ephesus

Bronze Age: Apasa (before 1000 BC)

Before there was an Ephesus there was Apasa, the capital of Arzawa, a kingdom known from Hittite records. Its fortified hill is believed to be Ayasuluk Hill in Selcuk, where Mycenaean pottery and a Late Bronze Age wall have been found under the later basilica. The name Ephesus itself probably descends from Apasa — the story is in our article on the meaning of Ephesus.

Ionian Greeks, Lydians and Persians (c. 1000–334 BC)

Greek colonists settled the hill around 1000 BC. Croesus of Lydia conquered the city around 560 BC and paid for a new Temple of Artemis, begun about 550 BC and, according to Pliny, some 120 years in the building. Persia took Anatolia in the 540s; the temple burned in 356 BC; Alexander arrived in 334 BC.

Hellenistic Ephesus (c. 290–129 BC)

Lysimachus, one of Alexander's generals, moved the whole city to the valley you visit today and wrapped it in walls. The full story of the move, drains and all, is in Alexander, Lysimachus and the city that moved.

Roman Ephesus (129 BC – AD 395)

Under Augustus the city became the capital of Asia and one of the largest cities of the Roman East. Older textbooks give figures up to about 225,000 people, but the two most recent systematic studies put it at roughly 34,000 to 72,000. This is the Ephesus of the Library of Celsus, the Terrace Houses and the Great Theater — and of Paul's three years.

Byzantine Ephesus (395–1304)

Christian councils in 431 and 449, Justinian's basilica over Saint John's tomb, then the slow strangling of the harbor by the river, fire in 614/615, Arab raids from 654 and the retreat of the population up the hill. Why the city died is told in the decline of Ephesus.

Seljuk and Ottoman Ayasuluk (1304–1923)

The Turkish emirs of Aydin made Ayasuluk their capital and built the Isa Bey Mosque in 1375, partly from Ephesian marble. The Ottomans took over for good in 1425. The valley below was deserted by the 15th century; the town on the hill became Selcuk in 1914 and is the modern-day Ephesus of today.

Was Ephesus Greek or Roman?

The two words describe different things. Greek was the city's language and culture from its founding, through its centuries as one of the twelve Ionian cities, and on through the Roman and Byzantine years: its council and assembly, its festivals of Artemis, its philosopher Heraclitus and most of its inscriptions are Greek. Even the street grid began as Greek, laid out when King Lysimachus refounded the city around 290 BC (the story is in Alexander, Lysimachus and the city that moved); under Augustus the Romans laid a second grid over parts of it. Rome supplied the government, the peace and much of the money, and most of the marble you walk past went up under the emperors in the first and second centuries AD. Ephesus was a Greek city in the Roman Empire, and it saw no contradiction in that.

Was it ever in Greece? No. Ephesus has always stood on the Asian shore of the Aegean, in the region the Greeks called Ionia and the Romans the province of Asia; today that is Izmir Province in Turkey. The confusion is understandable: Greek was spoken here for more than two thousand years, the Greek Orthodox villagers of nearby Sirince stayed until the population exchange of 1923, and the Greek island of Samos is in sight across the water from Kusadasi.

Our guides point out the Greek and the Latin on that same gate on the Best of Ephesus Tour, a private half day that also takes in the House of the Virgin Mary and the Temple of Artemis.

How old is Ephesus?

About 3,000 years as a Greek and Roman city, counting from the Ionian founding around 1000 BC; the Bronze Age settlement on Ayasuluk Hill is older still, and its excavators speak of roughly 9,000 years of continuous settlement on the hill. The marble city you walk was laid out around 290 BC and reached its peak in the first and second centuries AD, so most of what you photograph is around 1,900 years old.

Timeline of the excavations and restoration

1. 1863–1874 — John Turtle Wood. The British engineer searches for the Temple of Artemis on behalf of the British Museum and finds it on 31 December 1869, under about 6 m of sand.
2. 1895 — the Austrians arrive. Otto Benndorf begins the excavations that the Austrian Archaeological Institute (founded 1898) has led ever since; after more than 130 years, only about a tenth of the city has been uncovered.
3. 1970–1978 — the Celsus facade rises again. The library's front is rebuilt from its fallen blocks, creating one of the most photographed views in Turkey.
4. 2015 — World Heritage. UNESCO lists Ephesus, including Ayasuluk Hill and the House of the Virgin Mary.
5. 2016–2018 — a pause, then a restart. Turkey halted the Austrian work in October 2016 and allowed it to resume in May 2018.
6. 2022 onward — Domitian Square. New excavations uncover streets of shops and a tavern sealed under fire debris from 614/615 — rewriting the story of how the lower city ended.