How much are Ephesus tickets, is the Terrace Houses supplement worth it, and how do you get there from Selçuk?

The ticket structure, which is deliberately confusing

Erroneous information about Ephesus tickets is everywhere, largely because the pricing has been pegged to euros and changed repeatedly. The current structure:

• Ephesus main site: €40 (≈ $45) per person, including the Experience Museum

• Terrace Houses: +€15 (≈ $16.7), bought at the turnstile inside the site, before the roofed excavation

• Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Selçuk town: €10 (≈ $11.1)

• Basilica of St John on Ayasuluk hill: €6 (≈ $6.7)

• Temple of Artemis: free

• House of the Virgin Mary: not ministry-managed, priced in lira, around 700 to 800 TL

Children aged 8 and under enter free, with ID. The important point: buying a Museum Pass does not get you into the Terrace Houses, so do not assume a pass covers everything at Ephesus.

How to pay, and what they will not take

Official foreign-visitor fees are set in euros, but euro cash is not accepted at the gates. You pay by credit or debit card (Visa or Mastercard), or in Turkish lira at the official daily exchange rate.

This catches people out: visitors arrive with euros in hand from the cruise port and find they cannot use them. Bring a card, and expect the lira price to move with the exchange rate.

Getting there from Selçuk

Selçuk is the right base, and Ephesus is close enough to walk. The site has two gates — the upper gate by the Magnesia road and the lower gate near the Selçuk road — and the classic approach is to enter at the upper gate and walk downhill through the site to the lower gate, which puts the Library of Celsus and the theatre in the right order.

From Selçuk town centre it is about 3 km to the lower gate. Taxis run the short distance cheaply, and dolmuş services cover the road. Many people walk one way and take a taxi back.

If you are coming from Izmir, the airport is about an hour away and there are regular trains and buses to Selçuk. Cruise passengers usually arrive via Kuşadası, which is a short transfer.

Published hours: the site is open daily, 08:00 to 18:00, with the ticket office closing at 17:30, per the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's own listing. There are no closed days.

Start early. Ephesus has almost no shade, the site is large, and by mid-morning in summer the main street between the Library and the theatre is a slow-moving crowd. We were there in November and had room to photograph; in July it would be a different experience.

Is the Terrace Houses supplement worth €15?

Yes, with a caveat. The Terrace Houses — the "Houses of the Rich" — are the best-preserved domestic Roman interiors in the eastern Mediterranean: mosaics, frescoed walls and underfloor heating, protected under a modern roof and walked on steel gantries.

The caveat is time. The houses are a one-way route through a confined space, and in a busy period you move at the pace of the group ahead. If you have two hours at Ephesus, the main site and the theatre will use them. If you have three or four, the houses are the single best thing on the site.

For photographers, this is where the detail is. The Library of Celsus facade is the famous image, but the mosaics and the wall paintings are what you will remember.

Frequently asked questions