Harbour Street

Ephesus


The 530m-long Harbour St was built by Byzantine Emperor Arcadius (r 395-408) to link the Great Theatre and the Middle Harbour Gate in a late attempt to revive the fading city. At the time, it was Ephesus' most lavish thoroughfare, with the poshest shops of imported goods, and illuminated at night by 50 lamps on its colonnades – the only city outside Rome and Antioch to have street lighting.

Look for the high column of the propylon (entry gate) at the end of the street to see how far inland the sea reached in ancient times.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Ephesus attractions

1. Columns of the Evangelists

0.03 MILES

The middle of Harbour St (Arcadian Way) is marked by the shafts of Corinthian columns that once supported statues of the four Evangelists erected in the…

2. Theatre Gymnasium

0.13 MILES

You can pick out the foundations of this once-colossal structure, which was used for physical training and dates from around AD 125. A lot of excavation…

3. Lower Gate

0.13 MILES

This is the second, less frequented entrance to the ruins at Ephesus.

4. Ephesus

0.14 MILES

Of Turkey's hundreds of ancient cities and classical ruins, Ephesus is the grandest and best preserved. A Unesco-listed World Heritage Site, it's the best…

5. Harbour Baths

0.15 MILES

These baths, part of a complex that included a gymnasium and a sports area, were erected at the end of the 1st century AD but were badly damaged by an…

6. Lower Agora

0.16 MILES

This 110-sq-m one-time market had a massive colonnade. The shops in the colonnades traded in food and textiles; the agora's proximity to the harbour…

7. Temple of Serapis

0.16 MILES

This massive structure, reached by a flight of marble steps in the southwest corner of the Lower Agora, may have contained a temple to the Greco-Egyptian…

8. Great Theatre

0.19 MILES

Originally built under Hellenistic King Lysimachus, the Great Theatre was reconstructed by the Romans between AD 41 and 117 and it is thought St Paul…