Ephesus
is discovered in Selcuk, Izmir in western
Turkey.
Kusadasi is 19 km. far away from Ephesus
and Pamucak beach is 5 km far away from
Ephesus.
Ephesus / Turkey
"Click
on the small map to see the enlarged size"
The
original site of Ancient Ephesus was most
likely established on the Aegean coast,
on the shores of that sea which is today
located 8 km. away from the archaeological
excavations.
Over
the centuries, in fact, the rubble brought
on to the plain of the "Kucuk Menderes"
has enlarged the alluvial plain surrounding
the archaeological zone, leaving behind
in actual fact the shores of the Aegean.
In Roman times it was situated on the
northern slopes of the hills Coressus
and Pion and south of the Cayster (Kucuk
Menderes) River, the silt from which has
since formed a fertile plain but has caused
the coastline to move ever farther west.
In Roman times a sea channel was maintained
with difficulty to a harbor well west
of Pion. By late Byzantine times this
channel had become useless, and the coast
by the mid-20th century was three miles
farther west.
Ephesus
(Efes) is close to the town of Selcuk
about an hour drive south of Izmir. Kusadasi
is the nearest larger town, about 20km
from Ephesus.
Location:
Ephesus
was constructed on a river bend, that
was eventually dredged into a full harbor
near the mount of the Cayster River, on
the western coast of Asia Minor (modern
Turkey). Along the coastal plain between
Smyrna to the north and Miletus to the
south, the site is now about six miles
from the Aegean Sea. The city shifted
in five distinct locations over time,
each within a small area. The Apostles
Paul and John were familiar with the city
that scholars have dubbed "Ephesus
III" the largest (in area) of the
five.
The
areas where Ephesus located on as follows:
Ephesus I: Aya Suluk (St. John Area);
Ephesus II: Artemission area;
Ephesus III: Port of St. Paul: base of
Mount Koressos;
Ephesus IV: north of Aya Suluk;
Ephesus V: Selcuk area.
Because of the man-made harbor structure
and the flow of the river, a backwash
flow caused the harbor to frequently silt
up (by 449 BCE we already read of problems
documented about the silting. Later, Eusebius
records that Ephesus honoured Emperor
Hadrian for dredging and making navigable
the harbor). When cleared, Ephesus was
in a location that justified a great seaport.
The city sat at the convergence of three
land routes with a shipping lane from
the north via the channel created by the
Island of Chios and an opening facing
the cities of Macedonia.
The land routes that converged on Ephesus
included:
1) The Colossae / Laodicea road (traveling
east),
2) The road to Sardis and Galatia (northeast),
and
3) The Smyrna (north) main road.
Population:
Some scholars estimate the number of people
living at Ephesus to have exceeded 250,000
inhabitants during Ephesus III, which
would make it perhaps the fourth largest
of its day behind:
1) Rome;
2) Alexandria; and
3)An Antioch. This large a city was an
economic stronghold in Asia Minor, and
justified the title supreme metropolis
of Asia though there is an evidence that
its overall economic standing may have
been slowly declining.
)
