Modern Day Ephesus

Ephesus is not frozen in the past — it has a zip code. The modern town of Selcuk sits directly beside the ruins, and it is one of the most visited destinations in Turkey, known for its closeness to the ancient city, the House of the Virgin Mary and the art of the Seljuks.

Selcuk's old quarter keeps much of traditional Turkish life: a weekly market that farmers still attend, tea gardens under plane trees, and storks nesting theatrically on the Byzantine aqueduct that strides through the town center. Above everything rises Ayasuluk Hill with the Grand Fortress and the Isa Bey Mosque of 1375 on its slopes — the town's skyline is a compressed history lesson.

A sacred geography, still in use

For Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants alike, Selcuk-Ephesus remains a living pilgrimage: the New Testament's people — John, Paul, Mary, Apollos, Aquila, Priscilla — are all associated with this small patch of Aegean coast, and services are still held at the House of Virgin Mary and, on occasion, at the ancient churches themselves.

And a beach, because this is the Aegean

Ephesus Beach — Pamucak in Turkish — runs twelve uninterrupted kilometers of dark sand just west of the ruins, one of the longest beaches in Turkey. Where Roman ships once anchored, families now picnic; the silting harbor that killed the ancient city gifted the modern one a magnificent shore. A handful of large resort hotels anchor its ends, but most of the strand stays gloriously empty even in August.

Our guests often ask where the guides live. The answer is: here — in Selcuk's backstreets and Kusadasi's hills. That is what "by locals" means on the label.