Ephesus is an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey.

It is one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era.

In the Roman period, Ephesus has a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BCE, which also makes it one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean world.

The city is famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Emperor Constantine I rebuilds much of the city and erected new public baths.

Following the Edict of Thessalonica from emperor Theodosius I, the temple is destroyed in 401 CEby a mob led by St. John Chrysostom.

The town is partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614 CE.

The city's importance as a commercial center declines as the harbor is slowly silted up by the Cayster River (Küçük Menderes).Ephesus is one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of Revelation.

The Gospel of John may have been written here.

The city is the site of several 5th century Christian Councils, see Council of Ephesus.

It is also the site of a large gladiators' graveyard.Ephesus is founded as an Attic-Ionian colony in the 10th century BC on the Ayasuluk Hill, three kilometers from the center of ancient Ephesus (as attested by excavations at the Seljuk castle during the 1990s).

The mythical founder of the city was a prince of Athens named Androklos, who had to leave his country after the death of his father, King Kadros.

According to the legend, he founded Ephesus on the place where the oracle of Delphi became reality ("A fish and a boar will show you the way").

Androklos drove away most of the native Carian and Lelegian inhabitants of the city and united his people with the remainder.

He was a successful warrior, and as a king he was able to join the twelve cities of Ionia together into the Ionian League.

During his reign the city began to prosper.

He died in a battle against the Carians when he came to the aid of Priene, another city of the Ionian League.

Androklos and his dog are depicted on the Hadrian temple frieze, dating from the 2nd century.

Later, Greek historians such as Pausanias, Strabo, the poet Kallinos, and the historian Herodotos reassigned the city's mythological foundation to Ephos, queen of the Amazons.The Greek goddess Artemis and the great Anatolian goddess Kybele are identified together as Artemis of Ephesus.

The many-breasted "Lady of Ephesus", identified with Artemis, is venerated in the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the largest building of the ancient world according to Pausanias (4.31.8).

Pausanias mentions that the temple was built by Ephesus, son of the river god Caystrus before the arrival of the Ionians.

Of this structure, scarcely a trace remains.