Important Facts About Ancient Ephesus

By N.S. Gill, About.com Guide

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Artemis of Ephesus. In the Ephesus Museum.

CC Flickr User Son of Groucho

The Temple of Artemis, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, was in Ephesus.
There are visible ruins of a library dedicated to Proconsul Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemeanus that housed between 12,000-15,000 scrolls.
Ephesus was a coastal city with a population of 1/4 million. It became the second largest city of the Roman Empire.
It was founded between 1500-1000 B.C.
Ephesus was destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 17 and then rebuilt and enlarged by Tiberius.
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.
Ephesus was an important enough city for early Christianity, that the third ecumenical council was held there in A.D. 431.
It was the site of Paul's ministry was for three years.
Ephesus is now Selçuk, located in Turkey, on the Asian side (Anatolia).