Ephesus is the finest classical city surviving anywhere in the Mediterranean, and walking its marble streets is the closest most travellers will come to stepping into the Roman world. Founded by Greeks and turned into a great metropolis by Rome, it was a port of perhaps a quarter of a million people, capital of the province of Asia, and a major early Christian centre where Saint Paul preached and Saint John is traditionally said to have lived. The route runs downhill along Curetes Street past temples, fountains and public buildings to the site's showpiece, the soaring two-storey facade of the Library of Celsus, painstakingly reconstructed from its fallen stones. Beyond it stands the Great Theatre, cut into the hillside and once seating around 25,000. For an extra ticket, the covered Terrace Houses reveal the frescoed, mosaic-floored homes of the wealthy in extraordinary detail. Allow at least half a day, bring water and a hat, and enter early, as there is almost no shade.
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