Ephesus Entrance Fees: €40 Now, €45 from 1 April 2027

The Ephesus entrance fee for foreign visitors is €40 until 31 March 2027 and €45 from 1 April 2027, and the Terrace Houses inside the site cost extra: €15 now, €16 from April. The main ticket includes the digital Experience Museum, and the combined Ephesus and Terrace Houses ticket goes from €52 to €57. If you would rather not deal with tickets, queues and timing yourself, our private Ephesus tour with guide and van costs from $300 per person.

This page lists every ticket a visitor to Ephesus is likely to need, what each one covers, the opening hours, and how to work out a realistic budget for a day at the site. The 2027 figures come from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's new tariff, which we summarise in our Turkey museum prices 2027 update.

Ephesus ticket prices at a glance

All prices are for foreign visitors, set by the ministry in euros with VAT included. The 1 April 2027 column is taken from the official 2027 tariff tables.

Note: the current single prices for the Ephesus Museum and St John's Basilica are not shown here because we could not confirm them from an official source; the ticket office will show the price on the day.

Two dates matter when you plan. Any visit up to and including 31 March 2027 is charged at the current price. From 1 April 2027 the new tariff applies to the ancient city, the Terrace Houses, the combined tickets and the MuseumPass cards at the same time. For a couple visiting Ephesus and the Terrace Houses on the combined ticket, the rise is €10 in total.

What the main ticket actually covers

The Ephesus ticket gives you one entry to the excavated Roman city, from the upper gate near the State Agora to the lower gate near the harbour road, or the other way round. It covers the Odeon, Curetes Street, the Temple of Hadrian, the latrines, the Library of Celsus, the marble street and the Great Theatre. According to the ministry's site page, the ticket also includes the Ephesus Experience Museum, the digital exhibition at the site, which keeps the same hours as the ruins.

At sites marked with an asterisk in the official tariff, the foreign-visitor price includes the electronic audio guide. Both Ephesus and the Terrace Houses carry that mark. You collect the device at the entrance and return it at the exit, so if you enter at one gate and leave at the other, check where the return point is before you set off.

What the ticket does not cover:

• The Terrace Houses. The covered excavation of seven Roman town houses on the slope above Curetes Street needs its own ticket. Our Terrace Houses guide explains what is inside: wall paintings, mosaic floors and a marble hall being reassembled piece by piece.
• The Ephesus Museum in Selçuk. The statues of Artemis and most of the small finds from the site are in the town museum, about 3 km away. See our Ephesus Archaeological Museum guide.
• St John's Basilica on Ayasuluk Hill. A separate site in Selçuk, priced at €7 from April 2027.
• The House of the Virgin Mary. Not a ministry museum, so it is not on the tariff at all (more on that below).

Opening hours and when to arrive

Ephesus is open every day from 08:00 to 18:00, and the ticket office closes at 17:30, according to the ministry's page for the site. There is no weekly closing day, which makes Ephesus easier to plan than many Istanbul museums.

A few things we have learned from years of guiding there:

1. Go at opening time or after 15:00. Cruise ships calling at Kuşadası send coaches to Ephesus in the late morning, and the square in front of the library is at its fullest then.
2. Walk downhill. Start at the upper gate and finish at the lower one. The route is about the same length either way, but walking down saves your legs on the marble paving, which is slippery when worn smooth. This only works if someone collects you at the bottom, which is one practical reason people book a car and driver.
3. Bring water and a hat from May to September. There is very little shade between the upper gate and the theatre. Summer afternoons on the Aegean coast are hot: the long-term average high for nearby İzmir is 33.3°C in July, according to the Turkish State Meteorological Service.
4. Allow time for the Terrace Houses. Most visitors spend 30 to 45 minutes inside. If you are short of time, decide before you reach Curetes Street whether you will go in.

In summer the ministry also opens Ephesus on selected evenings for night visits. Dates and hours are announced each year, so check them for your travel date. Our Ephesus night tour is built around those evenings.

Combined tickets and the MuseumPass Aegean

A combined ticket is valid for 72 hours from first use, so you can see the ancient city one day and the museum the next.

• Ephesus + Terrace Houses (€52 now, €57 from April 2027). Worth it only if you are sure you want the Terrace Houses. Bought separately, the two cost €55 now and €61 from April, so the combined ticket saves €3 now and €4 later.
• Ephesus Museum + Ephesus + Terrace Houses + St John's Basilica (€65 now, €72 from April 2027). At 2027 single prices those four would cost €79, so this ticket saves €7 if you visit all four.
• MuseumPass Aegean (€95 now, €105 from April 2027). Valid for seven days at ministry museums and sites in the İzmir, Aydın, Muğla and Denizli provinces. It pays off only if you add sites such as Pamukkale (Hierapolis is €35 from April 2027), Pergamon (the Acropolis is €16 and the Asclepion €15), Aphrodisias (€13) or Miletus (€7) to your Ephesus days.

A simple rule: count the paid sites you will really visit in that week and add up the single prices. If the total is clearly above the pass price, buy the pass. For Ephesus alone, the combined tickets are almost always the better choice.

House of the Virgin Mary, Temple of Artemis and Şirince

These three often appear on the same day as Ephesus, but none of them is on the ministry's 2027 tariff.

The House of the Virgin Mary (Meryem Ana Evi) stands in the woods on Bülbül Dağı, about 6 km by road from the upper gate of Ephesus. It is a place of pilgrimage for Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Muslims, and it charges its own entrance fee. We have not found a current, official figure for that fee, so we do not quote one here; the price is shown at the gate.

The Temple of Artemis, once one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is reduced to a single re-erected column in a marshy field between Ephesus and Selçuk. It does not appear on the ministry's list of paid sites. Most visitors spend ten minutes there.

Şirince is a village in the hills about 8 km from Selçuk, with stone houses, fruit wine and olive oil shops. There is no entrance fee; you pay only for what you eat and buy.

Paying at the gate

The prices are set in euros, but the amount you pay at the ticket office is in Turkish lira at the exchange rate of the day, so the lira figure changes even when the euro price does not. The ministry also sells tickets online through muze.gov.tr.

Some practical points:

• Turkish citizens use the MüzeKart, a separate system. At the Terrace Houses, MüzeKart holders get a discount rather than free entry, and at the main site they pay extra for the Experience Museum. None of this affects foreign visitors.
• Keep your ticket or QR code until you leave. You may need it again at the Terrace Houses entrance.
• Queues form mainly at the upper gate in the late morning. Arriving at 08:00 or entering from the lower gate usually means a shorter wait.

What a day at Ephesus costs per person

Here are three common plans priced at the tariff from 1 April 2027. Add your transport, guide and lunch on top.

For a family of four on the middle plan, entrance fees alone come to €228 from April 2027, against €208 before. That is why we always tell guests to check whether a tour price includes entry tickets before comparing it with another.

Do tours include the entrance fees?

It depends on the tour. Some of ours include entry tickets and some do not, and the tour page lists the inclusions. When you compare offers, check three things:

1. Whether the ancient city ticket is included.
2. Whether the Terrace Houses are included or optional.
3. Whether the House of the Virgin Mary is on the route and its entry included.

A private guide also saves time at the site. They know which gate is quieter at that hour, where the audio guide returns are, and how to pace the walk so the Terrace Houses fit in. Our private Ephesus tour from Kuşadası and Selçuk page explains how a private day is organised, and our Ephesus destination guide covers the region as a whole. If you are arriving by ship, read Kuşadası cruise port to Ephesus first.

Tours that cover this

• Private Ephesus tour: full day with guide and van: 6 to 8 hours, from $300 per person.
• Ephesus day tour from Kuşadası and Selçuk with lunch and guide: from $127 per person.
• Ephesus shore excursion from Kuşadası port, private with on-time return: 6 to 8 hours, from $300 per person.
• Ephesus night tour with private guide and transfers: 5 to 7 hours, from $250 per person.

Coming from further away? Our Ephesus tour from Istanbul and Ephesus tour from Bodrum pages explain the flights and drives, and Ephesus tour from İzmir covers hotels, the airport and the İzmir cruise port. All our Ephesus departures are listed on the Ephesus tours page.

Frequently Asked Questions