Terrace Houses

Behind the shops on the south side of Curetes Street near the Library of Celsus there are luxurious private houses, known as the Slope Houses for their location on the slopes of Mt. Coressus.

The Slope Houses are also known as the Terrace Houses and Hanghausen (in German language, because the archaeologists are Austrian). The Slope Houses are still being excavated and are sometimes covered by a tent, but are usually open to the public. They can be reached by a flight of steep steps from Curetes Street.

The Slope Houses were used from the 1st century to 7th century AD, and then they were abandoned. Around this time, after the devastating Arab raids and the continued silting up of the harbor, the remaining inhabitants of Ephesus moved to Ayasuluk hill located near the Basilica of St. John.

After being abandoned, the Slope Houses gradually fell into decay. However, a number of them were filled with soil from landslips, which preserved them and their contents.

The houses at Ephesus are not inferior to those found at Pompeii and Herculaneum in terms of preservation and importance. Their decor and furnishings provide a great deal of information about the lifestyle of the Ephesian upper class in the Roman and Byzantine periods.

The ruins have been divided by archaeologists into Slope House 1 (in the south) and Slope House 2 (north, closer to the Library). Each house had three stories, running water, heating, and an atrium with an entrance onto the side street.

In Slope House 1, room A1 has a fine black-and-white mosaic. Room A2, being the atrium, has a marble floor with the remains of a fountain in the center. The walls of rooms A10 and A11 are decorated with frescoes.
The most interesting room in this house is A3, dubbed the "theater room" based on the theatrical subjects of its frescoes. One of the owners of the house may have overseen theater performances in Ephesus for a living. The right-hand wall has a scene from Menander's comedy, Perikeiromene ("The Girl Who Gets her Hair Cut"), and the left wall bears a scene from Euripides' Orestes.

The room also contains a fine fresco of the mythological battle between Hercules and the river god Achelous for the hand of Deianeira. The shape-shifting Achelous assumed the form of a dragon and of a bull during the struggle, and only accepted defeat when Hercules tore off one of his horns.

Slope House 2 is larger Slope House 1. Built in the 1st century AD, it was altered and extended several times before being abandoned in the 6th century. Many of its rooms have mosaics and frescoes. Rooms B9 and B10 have frescoes of the muses. The house has two atria, the larger of which has several fine Corinthian columns lining a passageway paved with a beautiful mosaic of a triton and sea-nymph.

The most interesting room in Slope House 2 is the atrium, because of the beautiful and unusual 5th-century glass mosaic in a niche. The niche is flanked by a decorative fresco of erotes supporting a garland. Inside the niche there is a glass mosaic of the heads of Dionysus and Ariadne against a background of luxuriant foliage and an array of glittering animals and birds. As the light changes, the glass tiles sparkle and glow, making the figures in the mosaic appear to move. The late date indicates the owners were likely Christians, making the pagan subject interesting.

Some of the major finds from the Slope Houses can be see in the Ephesus Museum, rooms 1 and 3.