Where was Ephesus?

Question

Where was Ephesus?

Accepted Answer

Ephesus lay on the west coast of Asia Minor near the mouth of the river Cayster, beside the town of Selçuk in Turkey, south of Izmir (ancient Smyrna, 55 km away in a straight line). It is about 995 km from Jerusalem in a straight line and 1,035 km from Antioch by the roads on the map; the island of Patmos lies about 100 km to the south-west. The harbour silted up over the centuries, and the ruins now lie some way from the sea. On his second journey Paul stopped briefly and left Aquila and Priscilla there. Returning, "Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus", argued three months in the synagogue and then two years in the school of Tyrannus, "so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus". The silversmith Demetrius raised a riot in the theatre over the shrines of Artemis. From Ephesus Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Timothy stayed in the city, and Revelation opens its letters "unto the angel of the church of Ephesus". Greek tradition held that Ionians under Androclus founded the city beside an older shrine. Its fame was the temple of Artemis, burned by Herostratus in 356 BC and rebuilt as one of the Seven Wonders. About 290 BC Lysimachus moved the people to a new site between the hills, and from 133 BC the city belonged to the Roman province of Asia, whose proconsul resided there. Early tradition holds that the apostle John lived and was buried at Ephesus, and in 431 a council met there and condemned Nestorius.