The Izmir issue
Inside the Ephesus Terrace Houses on an Izmir day trip
Most people walk past the Terrace Houses at Ephesus, the only place on the site where you can look into rooms people lived in. They cost an extra ticket at their own gate, and the time of day you go changes what you get for it.
By Joris van der Veldeİzmir on foot and by ferry
Halfway down the marble street at Ephesus there is a second gate, and it costs €15 for foreign adults. Most visitors glance at it and carry on downhill. Pay, and you spend the next hour on metal catwalks above seven Roman houses, looking down into courtyards with black and white chequered mosaic floors.
Seven houses under one roof
The Ephesus Terrace Houses climb the hillside in three levels, under a steel and glass canopy that keeps the sun and rain off. The walkways run above the rooms, so you look down into the colonnaded courtyards and across at the painted walls in red and ochre.
The painted panels include scenes from the plays of Euripides and Menander. There is a glass mosaic of Dionysus and Ariadne, a room painted with Apollo and the Muses, and a banqueting hall lined with marble. In the latrine, someone scratched caricatures of the philosophers Solon, Thales and Chilon into the wall.
The whole route is stepped metal walkway, with no wheelchair access. Some of the upper-level frescoes you see only from behind glass barriers. Allow an hour. The roof gives even, shaded light over the mosaics, which helps if you are photographing them.
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Which ticket to buy
Entry to the ancient city is €40 for foreign adults. The Terrace Houses charge their fee at their own gate inside the site, and a MüzeKart gets you nothing there. Over two or three days, a 72-hour combined ticket is €52 and covers the ancient city and the houses. A €65 version adds the Ephesus Museum and the Basilica of St John.
The €65 ticket is worth it if you will use both. The Basilica of St John stands on a hill in Selçuk, and the same ticket takes you into the Seljuk fortress above it. From the walls you can see the single standing column of the Temple of Artemis. You also look out over the silted plain where the harbour used to be. On its own the basilica is €6, open from 08:00 to 19:00 from April to October and to 17:00 from November to March.
A private guide is the other way to do it, and tours run every day. Book ahead, and check whether the Terrace Houses fee is included, as it is charged separately at the gate.
The walk down from the Upper Gate
Ephesus Archaeological Site has two gates, and the direction you choose decides how hard the day is. Go in at the Upper Gate, signed Magnesia, and the walk is downhill all the way to the Lower Gate. The Terrace Houses come up on your right partway down.
Dolmuş minibuses only serve the Lower Gate, so there is no public transport back up to the top. From Selçuk's otogar (bus station) a dolmuş runs about every half hour and takes five to 10 minutes. It works as a half day out of Izmir.
Quiet hours on the catwalks
The site is open every day from 08:00 to 18:00, with the box office closing at 17:30. The houses keep shorter hours in the cool months. From 1 October to 1 April they open from 09:00 to 17:00, and their box office shuts at 16:30.
Get in at 08:00, walk the top of the street while it is still empty, and be at the Terrace Houses gate as it opens at 09:00. If an early start is too much, come after 15:30 when the crowds thin, but get through that box office by 16:30.
In 2026 evening visits ran from 3 June to 2 November, Wednesday to Saturday, 19:00 to 23:00. Check the 2027 dates before you go.
The library and the theatre
Two minutes from the exit, the street ends at the Library of Celsus, the two-storey marble front that everyone photographs. Only the facade stands, put back on its original foundations. Conservation work on the marble runs to the end of 2027, so parts of it may be screened when you arrive. The steps are wall to wall with people mid-morning, which is one more reason to start early.
The Great Theatre of Ephesus is a short walk on, and you cannot go in. The seating has been closed for restoration since April 2025 and has not reopened. The direct road from the library is shut as well, so you reach the front of the building across the Commercial Agora. Look at it from outside.
Twenty minutes in the dark
The Ephesus Experience Museum sits inside the site between the theatre and the library. You wear an audioguide and move through three rooms, with projections running across all four walls. One sequence walks through the Roman city and steps inside the terrace houses, which explains them better than any railing does.
The show runs 15 to 20 minutes, and with the café and shop you need under an hour. The ancient-city ticket covers it, though the bundling has changed before, so confirm it at the gate. The MüzeKart is not valid. If you dislike dark rooms and loud sound, skip it.
Where the finds ended up
The sculpture and small finds lifted out of the houses are not on the hillside. They are in the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk, which gives the terrace house material a room of its own, alongside the fountain finds and two tall Artemis statues. Entry is €10 and it opens every day from 08:30 to 17:30, with the box office closing at 17:00. The MuseumPass covers it, the ancient-city ticket does not. It is a short walk from the train station, so it makes a good indoor second half to the day.
Şirince for the afternoon
Şirince is a village in the hills about eight kilometres above Ephesus, and minibuses run up from Selçuk's otogar in 15 to 20 minutes. Cars are left in the car parks outside, so you walk in on steep cobbled lanes. The draw is local fruit wine, including quince, mulberry and pomegranate. The cellars give free tastings before you buy, and courtyard restaurants do gözleme (stuffed flatbread) and köfte. Arrive before 10:30 or after 16:00 and the main lane is calmer. The last minibus down goes around 20:00 and seats are limited, so check the return when you get there.
Before you go
Everything here is open daily, nothing needs booking except a private guide, and the extra gate fee inside Ephesus is paid on the spot. Wear shoes you can manage stepped metal walkways in. See the Izmir guide and the Izmir hotel search.
Before you go
Do you need a separate ticket for the Ephesus Terrace Houses?
Yes. They have their own gate inside the site, and entry is €15 for foreign adults on top of the €40 ancient-city ticket. A MüzeKart is not valid there. A 72-hour combined ticket at €52 covers the city and the houses together.
How long do you need inside the Terrace Houses?
An hour on the walkways is enough to see all seven houses without rushing. If you add the Experience Museum inside the site, that is under an hour more, including its café and shop.
What time of day is quietest at the Terrace Houses?
The site opens at 08:00 and the first hour is the calmest, though the houses themselves open at 09:00 from 1 October to 1 April. Coaches start arriving around 09:30 and cruise groups mostly come between 10:00 and 14:00. It thins out after 15:30.
Are the Terrace Houses wheelchair accessible?
No. Stepped metal catwalks run the whole way and there is no wheelchair access. You can only see some of the upper-level frescoes from behind glass barriers.
Where are the mosaics and statues from the houses displayed?
The mosaics and painted walls stay in place under the protective roof at the site. The sculpture and small finds are in the Ephesus Museum in Selçuk, which has a room of terrace house material and charges its own €10 ticket.
