City
Ephesum
Selçuk
Listen to the story
Ephesus, whose ruins lie beside Selçuk in Turkey, was a great harbour city at the mouth of the river Cayster, in a deep bay that slowly silted up over the centuries. Famed for its sanctuary of Artemis, it became the seat of the Roman governor of Asia around 30 BC. The map honours it with a pair of towers, a mark that perhaps best suits the city before the earthquake of AD 262 or after its rebuilding under Theodosius the First. The next figure on the road, seventy-one Roman miles, about 105 kilometres, only makes sense as a voyage by sea around a cape.