Fast Facts About Ancient Ephesus

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide

Artemis of Ephesus. In the Ephesus Museum.

CC Flickr User Son of Groucho

Home of a Wonder: The Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, was in Ephesus.
Library: There are visible ruins of a library dedicated to Proconsul Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemeanus that housed between 12,000-15,000 scrolls.
Size: Ephesus was a coastal city with a population of 1/4 million. It became the second largest city of the Roman Empire.
Antiquity: It was founded between 1500-1000 B.C.
Restoration: Ephesus was destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 17 and then rebuilt and enlarged by Tiberius.
Cosmopolitan: A great city for pagans and Christians, Ephesus contained the normal trappings of Roman and Greek cities, including a theater, odeon, state agora, public toilets, and monuments to the emperors.
Religious: Ephesus was an important enough city for early Christianity, that the third ecumenical council was held there in A.D. 431.
St. Paul: It was the site of Paul's ministry was for three years.
Today: Ephesus is now Selçuk, located in Turkey, on the Asian side (Anatolia).