Curettes Road, Ephesus

Each set of stones has a name. Of course, I do believe the honesty of the studies, and the accuracy of the identification, but, here and there is hard to guess the original building, and how they identified it. Domician Temple, they say!

OK. Domician Temple, I say. But don't ask me more details. You have to go there, read the lines, and use your imagination.

I admire those guys that, starting from 3 or 4 stones near each other, imagine the whole puzzle, and rebuild... the possible. Reading (or listening to) the description, while watching the mounted stones, everything seems reasonable, and we can imagine what is missing. But... when everything was piled in the floor, how could they start? "Chapeau!"

They say this was Trajan's fountain! Why not?

The main street, named Curetes, is lined with lots of ruins, most of them impossible to identify or just imagine what they were in the old days until you listen to a guide - then everything is explained in detail.

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Located in the beginning of Curetes street, this gate seems to have been part of a two-storey building.

Well, if they say so I have no reason to doubt, but in place it is hard to extract a clear idea from that amount of stones.

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Located towards the end of Curetes Street, this gate was called the Hercules Gate because of the relief of Hercules on it. It was brought from another place in the fourth century AD to its current place, but the relief on it dates back to the second century AD. Only the two side of the columns remain today and the other parts of it have not been found. The relief of the flying Nike in the Domitian Square is thought to also be a part of this gate. The gate narrowed the access to the street, preventing the passage of vehicles.

Built around 104 AD, this is one of the finest monuments in Ephesus. It was constructed for the honour of Emperor Trajan and the statue of Trajan stood in the central niche on the facade overlooking the pool.

The pool of the fountain of Trajan was 20x10 meters, surrounded by columns and statues. These statues were of Dionysus, Satyr, Aphrodite and the family of the Emperor. They are now displayed in the Ephesus Museum in Selcuk.

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This street is the most famous of the three remaining main streets at Ephesus and leads uphill from the Library of Celsus. It took its name from the priests who were called Curetes and their names were written in the Prytaneion.

There were fountains, monuments, statues and shops on either side of the street. The shops on the south side were two-storied. Ephesus had many earthquakes in which many structures including Curetes Street were damaged. These damages affected columns which were restored, but after an earthquake in the 4th century, the columns were replaced by ones brought from different buildings in the city. The differences between the design of the columns can be seen today. The street takes its appearance from the 4th century. There were also many houses on the slope of the hill which were used by the richest of Ephesians. Under the houses there were colonnaded galleries with mosaics on the floor. Located in front of the shops was a roof to protect the pedestrians from sun or rain.

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It is the diagonal street that runs from the State Agora, past the Slope Houses, to the Library of Celsus. Curetes Street was both a main city street and an important processional route in the cult of Artemis.
The street assumed its final appearance in the 4th and 5th centuries.

There were fountains, monuments, statues and shops on the sides of the street. The shops on the south side were two-storied. Ephesus had many earthquakes, in which many structures including the Curetes Street were damaged.

You can watch my 3 min 19 sec Video clip Ephesus Part II with J.Bach – Air on the D String, from Orchestral Suite No.4.

Each shop was a single vaulted room but was connected to an upper level. At the far end of the room, stairs allowed to climb to the upper level, standing on the slopes of Mount Pion, in recess. This is where the shopkeepers lived. There was actually several superimposed levels of houses, connected both by external and by internal stairs. This was the wealthy part of the city as traders were those that had the wealth.

This photo shows the sidewalk, designated for pedestrians while the street was designated for horse drawn carriages. The street shows on the right of the photo. Each of the sidewalks was almost the same width than the main street : they were the place where citizens wandered quietly while the street itself was for transport.