The ancient ruins of Ephesus have always been a major tourist attraction. Ephesus was one of the great cities of the Ionian Greeks in Anatolia, located in Lydia where the Cayster River flows into the Aegean Sea. Ephesus is believed by many to be the Apasa mentioned in Hittite sources as the capital of the kingdom of Arzawa. Mycenaean pottery has been found in excavations done at the site.

Of special interest is the library of Celcus. For carved ever so subtly into one of the walls, is a menorah.