Photo: Dosseman / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Selçuk is a town and district in İzmir province on the Aegean coast, the base for visiting the ancient city of Ephesus. Its own monuments sit around Ayasuluk Hill, where the Basilica of St John stands, and the Ephesus Museum, run by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is in the town. UNESCO inscribed Ephesus in 2015 as a property of four separate components, and the visitor-facing Ministry sites are only some of them.
Country
Turkey
Type
Town
Where it is
37.9470, 27.3735
Understand the place
Not only where to go, but what to eat, what things cost, what visitors get wrong, how accessible Selçuk is, which scams to recognize and what is genuinely worth your time.
Planning your visit
No official source consulted recommends a month for Selçuk or Ephesus. For a sense of summer heat only: the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM) publishes long-run statistics for the İzmir station (1938 to 2025) but has no series for Selçuk itself, so these are figures for İzmir city, not for the ruins. They give an average daily high of 33.3°C in July and 33.0°C in August, against 12.5°C in January, with the highest temperature on record at that station 43.2°C in July. Rainfall is concentrated from October to April (an average of 92.3 mm in November and 145.8 mm in December, against 4.2 mm in July). Ephesus is an open-air archaeological site, and none of the Ministry pages read describe shade or drinking water inside it, so plan for the sun in summer and for wet paving in winter rather than expecting cover. Ministry opening hours for the Ephesus-area sites also differ between summer and winter on some of its own leaflets; see the individual places.
The Ministry lists the Ephesus Archaeological Site, the Terrace Houses (Yamaçevler), the Ephesus Experience Museum and the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk as separate pages with their own hours. On 22 September 2026 its Ephesus site page said the site ticket includes the Ephesus Experience Museum, while its fee directive lists the Terrace Houses outside the Museum Card. Check what a ticket covers on muze.gov.tr before you go.
The Ministry's list of temporarily closed units, read on 22 September 2026, shows the road that starts at the Library of Celsus and descends along Marble Road closed since 10 April 2025 for restoration, with no reopening date beyond 'until the works are complete'. The rest of the site was not listed as closed.
The Ministry publishes separate ticket-office hours for a lower gate and an upper gate at Ephesus. It does not publish their coordinates or a recommended route between them.
The complete guide
Start with the parts of Selçuk that matter most to your trip, then move into the practical details.
Experiences & attractions
Attractions, experiences and places actually worth your time.
Eat like you understand the place
Signature dishes, local drinks, markets and eating well.
Where to stay & explore
Where to stay, wander and choose the right area for your trip.
Beyond the destination
Nearby places worth a day out from here.
Bring home the right things
What is genuinely worth buying and where to look.
After dark
What the evenings are like, and where to spend them.
Family travel
Family logistics, strollers, transport and practical planning.
When to go
When to visit and what the seasons really feel like.
Know before it happens
Common tourist traps and how to avoid them.
Money & budgeting
Budgets, payments and everyday prices.
Transport
Public transport, taxis, walking and common pitfalls.
Travel for more people
Mobility, transport and sensory accessibility.
Understand before you arrive
Local expectations, religion and visitor etiquette.
The details that matter
Connectivity, health, photography and useful local details.
Find your fit
Solo, women alone, older visitors, LGBTQ+, pets, remote work, budget and luxury.
Travel that holds up
Tourism pressure, supporting local people and animal welfare.
Things to do
A Ministry of Culture and Tourism archaeological site. The Ministry describes Ephesus as the capital of the Roman province of Asia, with a theatre, the Library of Celsus, an odeon, bathhouses and the commercial agora among its remains. UNESCO inscribed 'Ephesus' in 2015 as a serial property of four components, of which the ancient city is one; the ticketed site visited from Selçuk is that component only.
A Ministry museum in Selçuk town holding finds from Ephesus and nearby sites. The Ministry's page names halls for the Fountain and Terrace Houses finds, coins, the Cybele cult, the Temple of Artemis and Imperial Cult finds, and singles out the Resting Warrior, a statue of Marcus Aurelius, a Head of Eros and the Ephesian Artemis.
According to the Ministry, seven ancient Roman houses on the slopes of Mount Koressos where prominent people of Ephesus lived, built in the 1st century AD, with mosaics, marble wall linings, frescoes and underfloor heating. The Ministry lists them as their own unit with their own hours.
A Ministry unit opposite the ancient theatre, described by the Ministry as an immersive presentation of daily life, trade, art and architecture in Ephesus. The Ministry's Ephesus site page says the site ticket includes it.
Ayasuluk Hill is one of the four components of the UNESCO property, together with the Artemision and the medieval settlement, and the Ministry describes the basilica on the tomb of St John and the castle on the hill. The Ministry publishes two separate pages, one for the Basilica of St John and one for the Ayasuluk archaeological site, whose hours and notes differ from each other and from its printed leaflet.
UNESCO lists the House of the Virgin Mary, a domed cruciform chapel about seven kilometres from Ephesus, as one of the four components of the Ephesus property. The Ministry's Terrace Houses page describes it as a pilgrimage site on Mount Koressos and says a ceremony has been held there every year on 15 August since Pope Paul VI's visit in 1967. Its visiting arrangements are published by its own association, not the Ministry, and were not confirmed here.
Transport
The Ministry's culture portal says the Ephesus Museum can be reached by train from Basmane Station in İzmir to Selçuk, or by İzban to Tepeköy Station and a transfer to Selçuk, and that Ephesus itself is reached by urban transit vehicles. The district governorate lists İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport, a small-aircraft airfield (Selçuk-Efes) and the İzmir-Denizli railway among its connections. The İzmir provincial directorate puts the Ephesus ruins 3 km from Selçuk town. Timetables, fares and which bus stops at which Ephesus gate were not published on the pages read.
Traveler experiences
Traveler reviews will appear here after moderation.
Worth the drive
Distances are straight-line, not driving time — mountain roads in this region are often twice as long as the map suggests.
Museum · Atatürk Mahallesi, İzmir
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's museum in Selçuk town, showing finds from the excavations of Ephesus and nearby sites, including the Ephesian Artemis, the Resting Warrior and a statue of Marcus Aurelius.
Archaeological site · İsa Bey Mahallesi, İzmir
A Byzantine-era basilica on Ayasuluk Hill in Selçuk, traditionally associated with the burial place of St John, run as a ticketed Ministry of Culture and Tourism site that also includes the adjoining Ayasuluk Castle.
Archaeological site · Efes Harabeleri, Acarlar, İzmir
The excavated Greek and Roman city of Ephesus, near Selçuk in İzmir province, run as a ticketed archaeological site by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and one of the four components of UNESCO's Ephesus World Heritage property.
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