The Terrace Houses of Ephesus (Yamaç Evler in Turkish) are a block of homes that belonged to the city's wealthiest families, built in terraces on the slope of Bülbüldağı (Mount Bülbül) facing Curetes Street. A huge protective roof covers them, and you walk through on glass walkways, looking down on the mosaics, the frescoes and the colonnaded courtyards.
The ticket is extra, and plenty of visitors skip it for that reason or simply because they are in a hurry. That is a mistake: the rest of Ephesus is streets and façades, while here you see how the people who paid for those façades lived behind their own front doors.
A little history
The houses were first built in the 1st century BC and were rebuilt and redecorated for centuries afterwards, one layer of decoration on top of another; most of what you see today dates from the 2nd century AD. They had running water, heating under the floors and inside the walls, private baths, colonnaded courtyards and double-height reception rooms. Their owners were merchants and officials: one house belonged to a priest of Dionysus, and in another a graffito lists the prices of the day.
Earthquakes eventually left them uninhabitable, and they lay buried under the hillside, which is exactly what preserved them. Austrian archaeologists have been excavating them since the 1960s, and in 2000 the present roof went up to protect the paintings from rain and sun.
What to see in the Terrace Houses
The mosaics
Floors with geometric patterns, a lion, a Medusa head, a Triton with a Nereid and scenes of the gods, all in coloured tesserae. From the walkways you see them whole, something you never get with mosaics hung on a museum wall. The upper walkway gives the best view of the largest floors.
The frescoes
Walls painted in Pompeian red, yellow and black, with Muses, philosophers, Cupids, birds and gardens, plus graffiti mentioning the price of onions or lines of love poetry. Conservators are still working on some of them, and you can watch them fitting the fragments together like a jigsaw.
The priest's house and the Marble Hall
In house 6, the home of that priest of Dionysus, a vaulted reception hall is clad in coloured marble right up to the ceiling: one of the most lavish private rooms to survive anywhere in Asia Minor. Beside it is a small private basilica.
Heating and baths
Where the floors have been lifted, you can see the brick pillars of the hypocaust, through which hot air circulated, and the terracotta pipes that carried hot and cold water. It explains the Roman standard of living better than any book.
Tips for your visit
Allow about 45 minutes. The walkways climb up and down flights of stairs, the route is on a slope and it is not accessible for wheelchairs.
- It is roofed and shaded: in summer it is the place to cool off halfway round Ephesus, and on a rainy day it is the most pleasant part of the site.
- Photography is allowed, but without flash.
- Visit it before the Library of Celsus as you walk down Curetes Street: the entrance is on your left, just before the library.
Tickets and prices
At the time of writing (2026), the ticket costs €16 under the official 2027 tariff, on top of the general ticket for the site, which is €45. Prices for foreign visitors are revised every year, so check the official Turkish museums website (muze.gov.tr) before you go. On my tours I include both tickets when the programme allows, and in any case your guide takes care of them at the entrance.
Where it is and how to get there
Inside the archaeological site of Ephesus, on the south side of Curetes Street, with its own entrance just before the Library of Celsus. You can reach it from either of the two gates into Ephesus.
Visiting them on my tours
I include them on the Ephesus and Şirince day tour from Kuşadası, which allows more time at the site, and in multi-day private tours for travellers who want to see Ephesus in depth. For the site as a whole, read Ephesus: history, ruins and a complete visitor's guide.
If Ephesus is one of the reasons for your trip, tell me when you plan your tailor-made trip and we'll give it the time it deserves.