Private Full-Day Ephesus Tour with Miletus and Didyma for Cruise Guests

Your private guide will meet you at your Kusadasi hotel or Kusadasi port at pre-arranged time. Pickup time will be given during the confirmation of your booking.After greeting, we will have a 20-minute drive to the Ephesus area to visit one of the main highlights in Turkey. Ephesus, one of the 12 cities of Ionian League (an ancient Greek district on the western coast of Asia Minor) is located near Izmir. As a port city it was a major departure point for trade routes into Asia Minor. Walk through history along marble streets lined with wonderful public buildings. Among them are the Baths of Scholastica and the Library of Celsus (it was built in the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. by Gaius Julius Aquila to be a memorial to his father Gaius Julius Celsus Polemanus, the proconsul of Province of Asia). The Temple of Hadrian and The Grand Theater are two of the most impressive buildings in Ephesus. The Grand theatre was built in the 3rd century B.C and it was later expanded to 24.000 spectators by the Romans in the 1st century A.D.Lunch time: we will have a delicious Turkish kebap and mezes with salad with soft drinks included.Next, we will head to our next stop Miletus, an ancient city located near the present Akköy at the mouth of the Buyuk Menderes (meander) River. Miletus owed its importance to its position on the trade routes. It was one of the largest cities in Anatolia with a population of between 80.000 and 100.000. Highly prosperous, it founded many colonies and was the home of the 6 BC philosophers Anaximander, Anaximenes and Thales, the town planner Hippodamus and architect of Hagia Sophia, Isidorus. Having a prominent position, Miletus became the most important port in this area and it was the most active member of the twelve cities of the Ionian Confederation. In the 7th century BC, Lydians besieged the city. The city was then controlled by Persians, Roman and Seljuk Turks.Our final visit after Miletus will be Didyma. The word Didyma means “twins” and it was associated by some as being the meeting place of Zeus and Leto to have their twins Apollo and Artemis. Didyma was famed as a prophecy center dedicated to Apollo, which served a similar purpose as the Delphi of Anatolia. It was not a city but a sanctuary linked to Miletus by Milesians with a 19 km/12 mi sacred road.After the tour we will take you back to the Kusadasi city center or port.