Ephesus Things to Do Tips by lashr1999

While walking, I was impressed by the Celcus Library. It was built in 114 AF by Tiberius Aquila as a tribute to his father Celcus. The library was completed in 117 AD. The library is 2 stories. The interior is covered in marble. The building itself is made of marble and has reliefs with figures of Nike, Eros and garlands. There are about sixteen paired columns, 8 on the top level and 8 on the bottom level. There are statues in between some of the doors. The statues symbolize wisdom, knowledge, intelligence and virtue of his father Celsus. There are niches inside the library where scrolls are said to have been kept. When the Goth took over they burned the interior of the museum but the outer façade was left mostly intact.

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Another interesting feature was the latriana which were built in the first century. These are public toilets which were side by side with no partitions. The wealthy would use these toilets and do their business and talk about business and politics at the same. They used this as a sort if meeting place to talk. When first built, the floor was paved with mosaic and had ornate statues.

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Another feature that has to be seen is the Ephesus theater which was built on the slopes of Mount Panayir in the 3rd century BC The theater has 3 sections: the auditorium where the audience sat, the orchestra which is the place for actors and the stage building. This ancient theater is still used for public performances even today. There are 3 huge semi-circles broken up by 11 wedges of stairs. The original theater could hold 24,000 people.

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The Pollio fountain built in 97 AD is another interesting feature which is located on the western side of the Agora. There are wide arches which support a small pool. The statues follow the adventures of Odysseus after the Trojan Wars and his adventures with the son of Poseidon.

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The Gates of Hercules are located at the beginning of Curetes Street. There are two centrally located columns that resemble the posts for gates. On these columns are reliefs of Hercules in lion skin. They show second century craftmanship. When walking though the gates we pushed the columns as we walked though. Our guide said to do this to see if we could feel the strength of Hercules. It did not work for anyone in our group.

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