Curetes Street

If Ephesus is a body, Curetes Street is its spine. This sloping marble avenue carried emperors in procession, funerals, festivals, shoppers, gossips and philosophers — and today it carries you, from the Hercules Gate at the top down to the Library of Celsus at the bottom.

The name comes from the Curetes, a college of priests of Artemis. In the founding myth they were the warriors who clashed their shields to drown out the cries of newborn Zeus and hide him from his child-swallowing father — and their successors held one of the most prestigious offices in the city. Their names are carved into monuments along the very street that honors them.

What you are actually walking past

The street is a parade of greatest hits. On your left going down: the Fountain of Trajan with its emperor's foot resting on the globe. Further along, the exquisite Temple of Hadrian with Medusa guarding its arch. Across the street climb the Terrace Houses, the frescoed villas of the rich, and near the bottom sit the Baths of Scholastica and the famous public latrines. Between the monuments ran shops under covered porticoes — and the sidewalk mosaics that once decorated those porticoes still survive in long, lovely stretches. Look down as much as up; almost nobody does.

Under your feet runs something even better: the city's plumbing. Clay pipes and stone channels beneath the slabs carried fresh water in and sewage out. When afternoon light rakes across the street you can spot the manhole-style access stones — the Romans built infrastructure they expected to service.

A guide's honest advice

Walk it downhill. Ephesus has two gates, and entering from the upper (Magnesia) gate turns the whole city into a gentle descent — this is the single most useful thing to know about Ephesus, and the reason most guided tours, ours included, start at the top. The marble is gorgeous and, after twenty centuries of sandals, polished slick; proper shoes beat flip-flops every time. And in summer, this street is a sun trap — carry water, wear the hat, and let the porticoes' shadows set your rhythm the way the Ephesians did.