Ephesus Archaeological Site

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city located on the western coast of Anatolia in present-day Izmir Province, Turkey. Ephesus was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek period. In Roman times, Ephesus was the second largest city of the Roman Empire, second only to Rome, the capital of the empire, for a long period. Ephesus had a population of over 250,000 and was a sacred site dedicated to the goddess Artemis by Emperor Augustus. It was at this temple that a statue of the goddess Artemis was discovered, which is now preserved in a museum in Selçuk.