Ephesus was an Ancient Greek City on the West Coast of Anatolia, near present-day Selcuk, Izmir Province, Turkey.
It was one of the Twelve Cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek Era. In the Roman period, it was for many years the Second Largest City of the Roman Empire, ranking behind Rome, the Empire’s Capital.
Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which also made it the second largest city in the world.
The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BCE), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The Temple was destroyed in 401 CE by a mob led by St. John Chrysostom.
Emperor Constantine I rebuilt much of the city and erected new public baths.
The town was again partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614.
The city’s importance as a commercial center declined,
as the harbor was slowly silted up by the Cayster River.
