600 B.C.E. Ephesus shoreline – 300 B.C.E. Ephesus shoreline – 1st C. B.C.E. Ephesus shoreline – 1st C. C.E. Ephesus shoreline – 3rd C. C.E. Ephesus shoreline today
The shifting shoreline of Ephesus
As the silting deposited by the Cayster River continues, the new land created in place of the Bay of Ephesus has moved beyond the city and the Artemision (see circle). Ephesus is no longer a seaport.
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John C. Kraft, Helmut Brückner, Ilhan Kayan, and Helmut Engelmann. “The Geographies of Ancient Ephesus and the Artemision in Anatolia,” Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, Vol. 22, No. 1 (1997): 121–149. Cited January 17, 2017.
A team of scientists made an extensive series of bore-holes around the Ephesus area and analyzed the resulting core samples. They determined dates when the tested area was under water and compiled maps showing the shoreline at given dates in ancient times. My maps are based on this research, primarily the maps on pp. 127, 130, 142, and 143.