5 Best Sights in Selçuk, The Central and Southern Aegean Coast

This small museum has one of the best collections of Roman and Greek artifacts found anywhere in Turkey. The well-displayed and labeled holdings date from the neolithic to Ottoman periods and include fine sculptures, friezes, mosaics, and reliefs. The elaborately carved white statues of Artemis are particularly notable, while the exhibit of jewelry, cosmetics, medical instruments, and housewares from Ephesus's terrace houses gives an intimate glimpse into day-to-day life in the ancient city.

Step through the impressive, pre-Justinianic marble portal (its huge blocks likely plundered from the nearby Temple of Artemis) to approach the basilica, which sits below the crenellated walls of the Fortress of Ayasuluk, likely covering the site of the most ancient settlement in Selçuk. In the 6th century AD, after earthquakes destroyed the modest church believed to mark the grave of St. John the Evangelist, Byzantine Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora commanded that a grand marble basilica be erected over the site on Ayasuluk Hill, its eleven domes grand enough to rival the imperial pair's other legendary building project, Hagia Sophia. The basilica's barrel-vaulted roof collapsed after another long-ago earthquake, but the ruined church is still an incredibly evocative sight, with its labyrinth of halls and marble courtyards, and occasional mosaic fragments. Both the basilica and the fortress, the work of Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman builders, provide stunning views of the Plain of Ephesus and the İsa Bey Mosque. Come by in the early morning or late afternoon when there are rarely crowds; if arriving later in the day, be sure to visit the fortress first---it closes earlier than the basilica area.

Lovely and evocative, this is one of the most ancient mosques in western Turkey, dating from 1375. The jumble of architectural styles suggests a transition between Seljuk and Ottoman design: like later-day Ottoman mosques, this one has a large courtyard, though the interior is plain (in the 19th century, it doubled as a kervansaray). The structure is built out of spolia, or "borrowed" stone: marble blocks with Latin inscriptions, Corinthian columns, black-granite columns from the baths at Ephesus, and pieces from the altar of the Temple of Artemis. Don't miss it if you're visiting the St. John Basilica—it's a three-minute walk downhill as you turn right out of the gate.

Today a lone column towering over a scattering of fallen stones in a marshy lowland on the Selçuk–Ephesus road is all that remains of a temple that was once four times larger than the Parthenon in Athens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Fragments of the temple are on display at İsa Bey Mosque. Begun in the 7th century BC, greatly expanded by the wealthy Lydian king Croesus, and redone in marble in the 6th century BC, the temple was torched by a disgruntled worshipper in 356 BC. Rebuilt by Alexander the Great, it was captured by Goths in AD 263 and later stripped for materials to build Istanbul's Aya Sofya and Selçuk's St. John Basilica. As goddess of the hunt and wild creatures, Artemis might well approve of the temple's new inhabitants: lizards, frogs, storks, and dozens of other birds. The temple is an easy 10-minute walk along a tree-lined road from Selçuk center, and more evocative if you visit it on your own.