EPHESUS

Greek Ephesos, the most important Greek city in Ionian Asia Minor, the ruins of which lie near the modern village of Selcuk in western Turkey. In Roman times it was situated on the northern slopes of the hills Coressus and Pion and south of the Cayster (Kkmenderes) River, the silt from which has since formed a fertile plain but has caused the coastline to move ever farther west. The Temple of Artemis, or Diana, to which Ephesus owed much of its fame and which seems to mark the site of the classical Greek city, was probably on the seaboard when it was founded (about 600 BC), one mile east by northeast of Pion (modern Panayir Dag). In Roman times a sea channel was maintained with difficulty to a harbour well west of Pion. By late Byzantine times this channel had become useless, and the coast by the mid-20th century was three miles farther west. Ephesus commanded the west end of one great trade route into Asia, that along the Cayster valley, and had easy access to the other two, along the Hermus (Gediz) and the Maeander (Bykmenderes) rivers. Additional reading G.E. Bean, Aegean Turkey: An Archaeological Guide (1966), contains useful material on topography and history. See also B.F. Deutsch, Our Lady of Ephesus (1965); B.L. Trell, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (1945). Older material includes T.A. Johnston, Ephesus and Its Great Council (1930), on religion; George Phaedros, Guide Book of the Ruins of Ephesus (1910); and J.T. Wood, Modern Discoveries on the Site of Ancient Ephesus (1890).