Ephesus Terrace Houses Guide

If you're wondering whether to pay extra for the Terrace Houses: yes. Out of everything at Ephesus, this is what people tend to remember afterwards.

The rest of the site is mostly public buildings, streets and grand façades. The Terrace Houses are where rich Ephesians actually lived, a block of homes built into the hillside just above Curetes Street and used from around the 1st century AD. An earthquake brought them down, and being buried is a large part of why so much survived: mosaic floors, painted walls, marble panelling, even the remains of heating systems.

These days the whole block sits under a big modern roof. You follow glass and metal walkways over the rooms and look down into courtyards, dining rooms and bathrooms. It's shaded, a small relief in summer.

What to look for

The wall paintings. Birds, flowers, theatre masks, figures of the Muses, and in places the colours are still bright. Then look down. The mosaic floors change from room to room, geometric in one, figures in the next. In one of the larger houses there's a hall once lined with marble that restorers are rebuilding from a vast pile of fragments, and you can often see their work tables with trays of numbered pieces. It's an enormous jigsaw puzzle.

Practical details

The entrance is halfway down Curetes Street on the right as you walk down, shortly before the Library of Celsus. Tickets are sold there or with your main ticket at the gate. Give it 45 minutes to an hour. There are a lot of stairs, some steep, so it's hard going with a pushchair and not really accessible for wheelchairs.

Many tour groups skip it to stay on schedule, so it's usually calmer than the main street outside.