Guided Ephesus and Temple of Artemis Tour from Kuşadası

Three historic sites near Selçuk

Follow the marble streets from Celsus to the Great Theatre

The tour goes inland from Kuşadası to Selçuk, where the remains of a Roman city, a Christian pilgrimage site and the site of an older sanctuary lie within a short drive of one another. You begin on foot in Ephesus, then travel by road to the other two sites.

The streets and public buildings of Roman Ephesus

At the archaeological site, the guide helps you read the city through its surviving streets, fountains and public spaces. Curetes Street connects several of the monuments you encounter on foot. Looking along the paving and towards the buildings beside it gives you a sense of how residents moved between civic spaces and the busier parts of the city. The Temple of Hadrian and the Odeon add two different points of reference: one for public honours and the other for the city’s civic life.

Library of Celsus and the Great Theatre

Pause in front of the Library of Celsus to look closely at the columns, niches and decoration that make its façade so recognisable. The guide can explain how the building served as both a library and a memorial. At the Great Theatre, the rows of seats rising into the slope show the scale on which public gatherings could take place. Together, these two monuments give you a sense of the range of activities that shaped life in Ephesus.

The House of the Virgin Mary and the Temple of Artemis

After Ephesus, visit the House of the Virgin Mary, a hillside sanctuary associated in Christian tradition with Mary’s later life. The small stone chapel and its wooded setting give this stop a quieter atmosphere than the open streets of Ephesus. Lunch at a local restaurant follows the visit. At the Temple of Artemis, the surviving column and scattered stonework offer a starting point for imagining the sanctuary that once stood here. The guide can put the site in context as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world and explain its significance to the city. For another day of ancient sites from Kuşadası, see the Pamukkale and Hierapolis tour, which also visits the travertine terraces.