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Photo: Matthias Holländer, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
A cathedral built around 500 AD over an earlier basilica. It's the likely site of the Third Ecumenical Council of 431 AD - these defined early Christian orthodoxy, with the First in Nicea in 325 AD and the Second in Constantinople in 381 AD. The Third upheld previous doctrine but found new heresies to fulminate against, and this time the miscreant was Nestorius, who sought to distinguish God from Jesus the man. The Council thundered that they were identical, and therefore Mary was Theotokos, bearer of God and not just of Christ. She is so known today in Orthodox iconography. In Revelation Chapter 2, Ephesus is the first of the "Seven Churches of Asia" addressed by St John of Patmos circa 90 AD, though he was referring to a small semi-secret congregation. St John commended Ephesus for hating the teachings of the Nicolaitans, which were so despicable that no-one knows what they were.
The Church of Mary was an ancient Christian cathedral dedicated to the Theotokos, located in Ephesus. It is also known as the Church of the Councils because several councils of importance to the history of Early Christianity are assumed to have been held within, although only the first one is accepted by Chalcedonian Christians. The church is located in the south stoa of the Olympieion next to the harbor of Ephesus.
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Coressus Harbour
Originally at the foot of Arcadiane. Visitors and goods landed and cleared customs here at least until the 2nd century AD. Then the area silted up, and the city fought a 500–year battle, dredging and cutting navigation channels to try to retain sea access. You can't reach the harbour, but from the higher ground look over fields and highways with traffic scurrying away to an unseen Aegean.
Latrine and richly furnished insula
A compulsory photo stop, a splendid marble 48-seater by the Octagon. Only the residents of the Terrace Houses and a handful of other plutocrats had their own sanitary fittings. Everyone else had to use the communal crappers, of which this is the best preserved. It was roofed, and beneath the seats flowed spent water from the bathhouse. Backsides were cleansed with sponges on sticks - after use these were rinsed in the flow then dunked in vinegar to await the next customer. Analysis of the slurry showed that citizens were riddled with intestinal worms, disseminated from other human and animal backsides further up the food and water chain.
A puzzle—it contained the body of a 15-18 year old woman but had no inscription. She died circa 50-20 BC, when only the most high-ranking nobles were buried within city walls. A legend has grown that this was Arsinoë sister of Cleopatra, but that story doesn't stand up. As if in a scene from an Indiana Jones movie, the body disappeared in Germany during World War II, so modern forensics cannot be brought to bear.
Hadrian Tapınağı
It's an attractive compact structure from say 117 AD—that's shortly before Emperor Hadrian busied himself building a wall across northern England, and perhaps the dedication to him came later. It was excavated and re-constructed from its fragments in the 1950s. Medusa is one of the carvings on its portico.
This is the only site within Ephesus with an additional admission fee, and it's worth it. This was the upmarket residential quarter, built on the slope above Curetes Street, and blinged with marbles and mosaics. Excavations began in the 1960s and continue, with the whole area under a protective canopy and with raised walkways and interpretive boards.