According to legend, the founder of Ephesus was Androklos, one of the sons of King Kodros, but Carians are known to have inhabited the area earlier, as at other Ionian sites. The city must have been colonized by the 10th century B.C.
The settlements of today were built in 300 BC, during the era of Alexander the Great
The first monumental temple in the world built entirely of marble—the Artemision—was erected shortly before the middle of the 6th century. It was 55 x115m in size—a huge edifice. It had 127 impressive columns and was regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Greeks found that the mother goddess, Cybele (or Kybele), held sway as the chief deity, as in almost every part of Anatolia. The goddess was later known as Artemis.
The original settlement of Ephesus is thought to have been established 1,200m west of Artemission. After the death of Alexander the Great, Ephesus—and all of Ionia—fell into hands of Lysimachus. During the Hellenistic period, the city was under the control of Seleucids. In 190 B.C the city was governed by the Pergamum king for 60 yeras. During the era of Aristeides, who lived in circa in A.D.150, Ephesus was the most prosperous commercial centre in the region and controlled the banking affairs of the whole of western Anatolia. After a period famous in ancient history for strife and upheaval—during the 3rd century A.D. and into the middle of 4th—Ephesus entered a third golden age, which lasted until the Justinian era. With the rapid expansion of Christianity, many important monuments were erected in the city, such as the castle of Ayasoluk, and the church of St. John. Ephesus enjoyed a further period of prosperity during the Seljuk era (14th century). Under the Ottomans, the city declined.
British archaeologists undertook the first excavations at Ephesus in 1868, at the temple of Artemis. They proved the existence of three building phases beneath the ancient Artemission. The fragments that remain of these wonderful monuments are preserved in the museums of London, Berlin, Istanbul, Izmir, and Ephesus.
Excavations have been carried out at Ephesus for the last 100 years. Renovations of the Celsus Library have been completed.
The museum of Ephesus—in modern-day Selçuk—is one of the finest local museums in Turkey. The majority of the finds uncovered before the World War I was conveyed to the museum in Vienna; all of the statues discovered after this war were taken to the archaeological museum in Izmir. However all the statues excavated after Second World War, including Mycenaean vases found on the hill at Ayasoluk, fragments from the Artemisia, and the sarcophagus and Corinthian columns from the Belevi Mausoleum, the temple of Domitian, two statues of Artemis, and various statues taken from different monuments, are on display in the museum in Selçuk.
Ephesus is a large city. The city zone is 8 km in distance. Beside Temple of Artemis and Celcus Library, Virgin Mary Church in Bülbüldağı, Seven Sleepers Caves and Isa Bey mosquare are worth visiting. A legend purported that Virgin Mary may have spent several years of her life in Ephesus. This house is purported to have been the last home of Mary. Today, this house is a popular place for Catholic pilgrimage which has been visited by pope.