History and life
Ephesus Timeline
Key answer
Ephesus is not one city but a sequence of settlements in the same landscape. Occupation begins at the Cukurici Mound in the 7th millennium BCE and on the Ayasuluk hill in the Middle Bronze Age; the Artemision is founded in the 2nd millennium BCE; Lysimachos lays out a new city in the 4th century BCE; the Roman province of Asia is organised with Ephesus at its centre from 133 BCE; Christian monuments and pilgrimage mark the 5th century CE; medieval Ayasuluk follows, with the Isa Bey Mosque; and the whole landscape was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2015.
Historical Evidence
Prehistory and the Bronze Age
The earliest occupation in the World Heritage area is the Cukurici Mound, settled from the 7th millennium BCE.
The Ayasuluk hill above modern Selcuk carries settlement from the Middle Bronze Age, making it the long-lived core of the landscape rather than the classical ruins visitors walk today.
Historical Evidence
The Artemision, 2nd millennium BCE
The sanctuary of Artemis on the plain was founded in the 2nd millennium BCE and remained the religious anchor of the area for many centuries, drawing the settlements around it.
Historical Evidence
Lysimachos' new city, 4th century BCE
In the 4th century BCE Lysimachos founded a new city on the ground between the hills of Panayirdag and Bulbuldag. That Hellenistic layout is the frame the later Roman city was built into, and it is the city walked on the archaeological site today.
Historical Evidence
Roman provincial capital, from 133 BCE
From 133 BCE Ephesus held provincial-capital status in the Roman world, the position that underlies the scale of its public monuments.
Historical Evidence
Christian monuments and pilgrimage, 5th century CE
In the 5th century CE Ephesus became a major Christian centre, with monumental churches and pilgrimage traffic that reshaped the use of the landscape.
Historical Evidence
Medieval settlement and the Isa Bey Mosque
Settlement later concentrated again on the Ayasuluk hill, and the Anatolian Turkish period is represented in the same landscape by the Isa Bey Mosque below it.
Historical Evidence
UNESCO World Heritage inscription, 2015
Ephesus was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2015 as a landscape covering these phases together, not the Roman ruins alone.
Common questions
The Cukurici Mound, occupied from the 7th millennium BCE, with the Ayasuluk hill settled from the Middle Bronze Age.
In 2015.