Ephesus Entrance Fee 2026: Ticket Prices for Every Site

The Ephesus entrance fee (entry fee) in Turkey is €40 per adult for foreign visitors in 2026; the Terrace Houses inside the site need a separate €15 ticket. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism sets both prices, last verified September 2026. Below: what children pay, opening hours, how to pay, and how our guests skip the ticket line.

Ephesus entrance fee 2026

Ephesus Ancient City costs €40 per adult in 2026. The Terrace Houses, the covered Roman villas inside the site, cost €15 on a separate ticket: €55 if bought separately. A €52 combined ticket is sometimes on sale, and we buy whichever is cheaper on the day.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism sets these prices in euros and can change them without notice. Prices last verified: September 2026.

The Ministry's tariff also lists combined tickets that are not always on sale, and whether the Ephesus Experience Museum is bundled into the €40 ticket changed in 2026. We confirm the current arrangement, and the cheapest option for your group, before your tour.

From the gate itself: on cruise mornings the ticket line forms at the lower (harbor) gate, because that is where the coaches park. The upper Magnesia Gate is usually quieter, and it is where our tours start, so the walk runs downhill. The Ephesus map shows both gates.

House of Virgin Mary entrance fee

The House of the Virgin Mary, near Ephesus in Turkey, has its own entrance fee, separate from the Ephesus ticket. It is a national-park fee priced in Turkish lira: roughly €15 per person in 2026 (guide sites report about 700 TL). No official tariff is published online, so check current rates.

Since late 2024 the gate and car park have been run by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry as a national park; per-person fees began on 1 January 2025. Because it is not a Culture Ministry site, MüzeKart, Museum Pass Türkiye and Museum Pass Aegean are not accepted, and there is a per-vehicle parking charge.

On our tours this is the easiest gate of the day: we pre-book and pay the park entry for you. No euro cash, no Museum Pass, no queue at the barrier. The shrine is about 7 km from Selcuk, above the ancient city, so it pairs with Ephesus on the Best of Ephesus Tour.

• Open every day: 08:00–18:00 in summer, 08:00–17:00 in winter (updated September 2026).
• Visitors are asked to cover shoulders and knees (wraps can be borrowed at the entrance); no photography inside the chapel.
• A liturgical ceremony is held every 15 August for the Assumption of Mary; tell us if you want to attend and we time the day around it.

Ephesus child ticket policy, students and seniors

The Ephesus child ticket policy is simple: children aged 7 and under enter free. Bring the passport, because the ticket office checks the age. From age 8, foreign visitors pay the full €40 adult price.

• Children 7 and under: free at every Culture Ministry gate, including the Terrace Houses.
• Age 8 and over: full adult price; there is no youth ticket for foreign visitors.
• Students: no discount, except university students of archaeology, art history or museology, who enter free with proof of their department.
• Seniors: no discount for foreign visitors.
• Visitors with a disability card: free entry; ask us about companion tickets before your date.
• Turkish citizens and MüzeKart holders: under 18 and aged 65 and over free with ID; adults use MüzeKart or a 200 TL ticket, and the Terrace Houses charge MüzeKart holders a discounted 200 TL.

For families: two children under 8 add nothing to the ticket bill. Our Ephesus for Children and Ephesus for Seniors tours are built around these gates, with the guide carrying the tickets.

Can you see Ephesus for free?

The free-entry rules for people are in the section above: children aged 7 and under, visitors with a disability card, and university students of archaeology, art history or museology with proof of their department. Everyone else pays at the gate. What you can see without any ticket at all is a ring of sights around the fence:

• The Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders, has no ticket office. A single reassembled column marks the spot on the edge of Selcuk, about 3 km by road from the lower gate.
• The stadium and the Vedius Gymnasium lie outside the fence, on the road to the lower gate. They are closed to visitors, but you can see them from the road.
• The upper city, from the road. The road past the upper gate toward the House of the Virgin Mary gives a passing look at the Odeon and the ruins of the upper city, which is how our all-inclusive Ephesus Panoramic Tour sees them.
• Selcuk and Sirince. The storks nesting on the old aqueduct in Selcuk (mid-March to late August), the Isa Bey Mosque of 1375 (a working mosque, so dress modestly if you step inside) and Sirince, a living village with no entrance fee; only its car parks charge a small fee.
• The Cave of the Seven Sleepers had no ticket office at the time of writing.

What none of this gives you is the marble street itself. Curetes Street and the Library of Celsus, the views most people come for, sit inside the fence, down in the valley between Panayir Hill and Bulbul Dagi. On our tours the cost of getting in does not change: we buy your tickets in advance at exactly the Ministry's gate price, with no mark-up, and the ticket cost is paid separately from the tour price. What changes is the queue, as skip the line at Ephesus below explains. The Best of Ephesus Tour pairs the ancient city with the House of the Virgin Mary and the free Temple of Artemis in one half day.

MüzeKart vs Museum Pass Türkiye

A "MüzeKart" does make Ephesus cheap, but only for people who can buy one: MüzeKart is an annual card for Turkish citizens and residents with a Turkish ID number. Short-stay visitors buy a Museum Pass instead, sold online at muze.gov.tr.

• Museum Pass Türkiye: valid 15 days (360 hours) from first entry, more than 300 Culture Ministry and National Palaces sites, one entry per site, not valid at Dolmabahce Palace. Check the current price at muze.gov.tr.
• Museum Pass Aegean: a regional pass valid 7 days (168 hours); check the covered sites on the official page.
• No pass covers the Terrace Houses (always their own €15 ticket) or the House of the Virgin Mary.

Does a pass pay off? Ephesus €40, the Ephesus Museum €10 and St John's Basilica €6 come to €56 at the gate; compare that with the pass price on muze.gov.tr. On a private tour we buy the tickets for you anyway.

Ephesus opening hours 2026

Ephesus is open every day. In summer (about April to September) it opens at 08:00; the lower-gate ticket office sells until about 18:45 and the upper-gate ticket office closes at 18:00. In winter (October to March) the site is open 08:00–18:00, last ticket 17:30 (updated September 2026).

The upper-gate ticket office shuts 45 minutes before the lower one in summer, so start a late-afternoon visit at the lower gate. The night museum runs 1 June to 1 October and is not guaranteed outside those dates; ask us about evening ticket prices.

Where to buy Ephesus tickets

There is no second booth to hunt for: the €40 Ephesus ticket and the €15 Terrace Houses ticket are sold at the same window at each gate, and the €52 combined ticket is sold there too on the days it is available. Both gates accept credit and debit cards, and both charge the same prices — so the gate you choose is a decision about the walk, not the cost. The Ephesus map shows why we always start at the upper one.

How to pay at the gate

The Ministry sets the Ephesus ticket price in euros, yet you cannot pay in euro cash. That surprises more visitors than any other rule at these gates.

1. Both gates sell tickets: the lower (harbor) gate and the upper (Magnesia) gate, each with a paid car park.
2. Pay in Turkish lira cash, converted at the day's rate, or by credit/debit card. Euro banknotes are refused.
3. Ask for the Terrace Houses ticket (€15) at the same window; a €52 combined ticket may be on sale that day.
4. Keep the ticket: the Terrace Houses have their own turnstile inside the site, and combined tickets are valid 72 hours from first use. An audio-guide service is available at the entrance.

Parking matters only to self-drivers: both Ephesus gates have paid car parks, and Sirince's village car parks charge a small fee. Tour guests never pay parking; the vehicle drops you at one gate and waits at the other. Routes: getting to Ephesus.

Skip the line at Ephesus

Every private tour we run includes priority entrance at every gate. The mechanism is simple: we buy the tickets in advance at exactly the official gate price, with no mark-up, so your guide walks you to the turnstile while the ticket line waits. You pay each entry fee at gate price, separately from the tour price. What priority entry skips, and what it does not, is set out step by step in skip the line at Ephesus, explained.

1. Send your date, pickup point and group size (1 to 44 travelers) through the booking form or by email. No prepayment, so no cancellation fee.
2. We reply within 24 hours with the current official prices and the cheapest ticket option, including a combined ticket when one is on sale.
3. Your licensed local guide meets you at the hotel, the airport or the cruise gangway with a name sign, tickets in hand.
4. You skip the ticket line at Ephesus, the Terrace Houses, the museum, St John's Basilica and the House of the Virgin Mary, paying each ticket at its gate price.
5. Lunch at a local artisan center is included; cruise guests are guaranteed back at the ship on time.

One tour works differently: the Ephesus Panoramic Tour is all-inclusive from €33 per person, every entrance fee inside the price, on a route of open sites and viewpoints with nothing to queue for. Cruise guests short on port time can take the Ephesus Interrupted Tour from €38.

Prices change; the rules above rarely do. Every one of our private Ephesus tours includes buying these tickets for you at the official gate price, and the ticket cost is always paid separately from the tour. For the exact figures on your travel date, use the booking form or the contact page. We answer within 24 hours, any day, with the current official rates.