Ephesus, Turkey. Ephesus, Turkey. Ancient Greek fes, Turkish Efes was an ancient Greek city, and later a major Roman city, on the west coast of Asia Minor, near present-day Selçuk, Izmir Province, Turkey It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the Classical Greek era In the Roman period, it was for many years the second largest city of the Roman Empire, ranking behind Rome, the empire´s capital 12 Ephesus had a population of more than 250,000 in the 1st century BC, which al