Why was Ephesus abandoned? The silting harbor made the city poorer, but people left because the lower city could no longer be defended: Arab fleets struck in 654–655, 700 and 716, and a raid in 781 carried off about 7,000 captives.
After each blow the survivors pulled back up Ayasuluk Hill, a short way inland, where the fortified town around the Basilica of St John became today's Selçuk. The old city was never destroyed in a single day; it was left behind over roughly 800 years, and it was empty by the 15th century.
Why was Ephesus abandoned?
Ephesus was abandoned because its harbor silted up and its trade faded, and then Arab raids between 654 and 781 made the low, sprawling city impossible to defend. Survivors moved inside new walls on Ayasuluk Hill around the Basilica of St John. That hilltop town, not the ruins, became modern Selçuk.
Most short answers stop at the silt, and the silt is real. We tell that half of the story in how Ephesus lost its sea. But a poorer city is still a city. What emptied the streets you walk today was fear, and a hill that could be walled.
Silt made Ephesus poor. Raids made it leave.
By late antiquity Ephesus had already taken hard knocks. The Goths raided the coast in the 260s and burned the Temple of Artemis, and the painted Terrace Houses were given up as homes after the destruction of that decade. Earthquakes followed, including a heavy one usually dated to 614.
Each time, the city rebuilt, smaller and plainer. What it could not rebuild was distance from the water. The river kept pushing the coastline west, the harbor needed constant dredging, and ships had other ports to choose from.
Then the Justinianic plague of the 540s swept the eastern Mediterranean. It almost certainly reached a port this size, yet more than a century of digging has found no plague pits at Ephesus. The honest answer is that nobody knows how hard it hit.
Arab raids on Ephesus, 654 to 781
In the mid-seventh century a new power arrived by sea. Fleets sent under the caliph Muawiyah I sacked Ephesus in 654–655. The raiders came back in 700 and again in 716. In 781 a raid carried away about 7,000 captives.
Seven thousand people would fill more than a quarter of the Great Theater's roughly 25,000 seats. For a city already shrinking, it was a generation of farmers, craftsmen and families gone in a single season.
| Year | What happened | What it did to the city |
|---|---|---|
| 262–268 | Gothic raid; Temple of Artemis burned | The richest quarters were never rebuilt as homes |
| c. 614 | Major earthquake | More ruin, repaired on a smaller scale |
| 654–655 | Arab fleet under Muawiyah I sacks Ephesus | New walls enclose less than half the old city |
| 700 and 716 | Further Arab raids | Settlement keeps drawing back toward the hill |
| 781 | Raid carries off about 7,000 captives | The lower city stops being where people live |
| 1090–1097 | Seljuk Turks take the town; Byzantines return | Life centers on the fortified hill |
| 1304 | Town surrenders to Turkish forces; most residents deported | The Byzantine town on the hill ends |
| 1400s | Ephesus completely abandoned | Ayasuluk carries on as the local town |
A wall across the middle of the city
The clearest evidence of the retreat is a wall. After the attacks began in 654, new fortifications enclosed less than half of the ancient city, according to the Byzantine Legacy survey of the site. A second defended center grew around the Basilica of St John, on the hill to the northeast.
Building a wall through your own city is an admission. The people of Ephesus were deciding which streets were worth dying for and which were not. The monuments you photograph today mostly ended up on the wrong side of that line.
Not everything in the lower city died at once. The Church of Mary, where the Council of Ephesus met in 431, was the seat of the bishop of Ephesus through late antiquity and the heart of the lower city's Christian life.
Our full-day Ephesus tour walks the ancient city and then crosses to Selçuk, finishing at the Isa Bey Mosque at the foot of Ayasuluk Hill, so you see both halves of this story on one day with a private guide. Tickets are bought in advance so you skip the line; the ticket cost is paid separately.
Send us your date through the booking page or at info@ephesustoursbylocals.com.
TÜRSAB 15746 · private only · no prepayment to ask.
Hagios Theologos: the town on the hill
The hill already had a pull before the raids. Christians believed John the Apostle was buried on its slope, and in the sixth century Emperor Justinian replaced the small church over the grave with a domed basilica about 130 meters long, one of the largest churches of its age.
So when the lower city became a trap, the hill offered three things at once: height, walls and the apostle. The town took his title, Hagios Theologos, "the holy theologian". Turkish speakers later heard it as Ayasuluk.
Stone came up the hill too. Blocks from the old stadium went into the walls and gate of the basilica's enclosure, and marble from the Temple of Artemis ended up in the church. The lower city was not only left; it was quarried. Our colleagues trace the basilica itself on the Basilica of St John page.
When was Ephesus abandoned for good?
There is no single date, which is why answers online disagree. By the ninth century the harbor was ruined and the city's center had moved to the hill. The Seljuk Turks held the town briefly from 1090 until the Byzantines returned in 1097.
The Byzantine town ended on 24 October 1304, when it surrendered to Sasa Bey, a Turkish commander. Against the surrender terms the Basilica of St John was plundered, and when a revolt seemed likely most of the Christian population was deported. The Aydınid emirs then made Ayasuluk their town, and in 1374–75 built the Isa Bey Mosque below the fortress.
By the 15th century the ancient city itself was completely abandoned. Ayasuluk carried on as a small market town, and in 1914 it was renamed Selçuk. The ruins waited under soil and scrub until excavation began in the 1860s. What is still under the ground is its own story, told in what is still buried at Ephesus.
Where to see the move uphill today
You can read the whole story in one afternoon, because the ruins and Selçuk are only about 3 kilometers apart.
- Harbor Street, at the bottom of the ancient city. Stand at its top by the Great Theater and look west. That is where the money came from, and where the water went.
- The Church of Mary, a short walk north of Harbor Street. The lower city's cathedral, and one of the last places in it where people gathered.
- The Basilica of St John. Walk through its fortified gate and you are inside the refuge.
- Ayasuluk Fortress, on the summit. It is open to visitors; practical details are on the Ayasuluk Hill and Fortress page. From the walls you can see across the plain toward the ruins.
- The Isa Bey Mosque, at the foot of the hill: the next chapter, built by the people who took the town in 1304.
For the rest of the town, including the aqueduct with its stork nests and a good lunch, see Selçuk in a day. For the full sweep from the Bronze Age onward, our colleagues keep a longer history of Ephesus.
Questions readers ask
What happened to Ephesus?
It shrank, then moved. Silt cut the city off from the sea, and Arab raids from 654 to 781 made the lower city too dangerous. People moved into walls on Ayasuluk Hill, which became Selçuk. The ancient city was empty by the 15th century and was dug out from the 1860s on.
How did Ephesus fall?
Slowly, not in one siege. The decisive blows were the Arab raids of 654–655, 700, 716 and 781, and the town on the hill finally surrendered to Turkish forces on 24 October 1304, after which most of its Christian population was deported.
When was Ephesus abandoned?
In stages: the lower city emptied between the 7th and 9th centuries as people moved up Ayasuluk Hill, the Byzantine town ended in 1304, and the ancient city was completely abandoned by the 15th century.
Why was Ephesus abandoned in the Bible?
It was not; the Bible does not describe it. Revelation 2 warns the church at Ephesus that its lampstand could be removed, and many readers link that to the city's later fate. For the letter itself, see our colleagues' page on the church that left its first love.
When did the church of Ephesus disappear?
Not with the raids. Christian worship continued on Ayasuluk Hill around the Basilica of St John for more than six centuries after 654. It ended as an organized community after 1304, when the basilica was plundered and most Christians were deported.
Is Ephesus still a city today?
No. Ephesus is an archaeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its living successor is Selçuk, the town on and around Ayasuluk Hill, about 3 kilometers from the ruins' main entrance.
Can you see the Byzantine walls on Ayasuluk Hill?
Yes. The fortress on the summit and the enclosure around the Basilica of St John are both open to visitors, and on a clear day you can see from the hill across the plain toward the ancient city. Bring water: there is little shade on the climb.
Sources: UNESCO World Heritage listing for Ephesus; The Byzantine Legacy; Clive Foss, Ephesus after Antiquity (Cambridge, 1979). Written by the Gezginol Travel guiding team.
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