The Terrace Houses: Roman Homes Under a Roof

What is actually inside the Terrace Houses?

The visitor route is Terrace House 2: seven residential units of wealthy Roman families, stacked into the hillside between the Upper Gate and the Library of Celsus, with painted plaster walls, mosaic floors and rooms lined in cut marble panels. Some rooms still show the outline of a heating system built into the floor, and more than one unit keeps a private bath. All of it sits under a protective roof, out of the sun and the weather, which is part of why the colors on the frescoes have held up.

You walk it on a raised steel walkway that loops through the units in one direction, close enough to see brushwork on the plaster and the pattern in a mosaic floor without stepping on either.

Is the ticket really separate from the Ephesus ticket?

Yes. The Terrace Houses always carry their own €15 charge on top of the €40 Ephesus ticket, and no pass, including Museum Pass Türkiye, covers it. The ticket office sometimes sells a combined Ephesus-and-Terrace-Houses ticket, so you can pay for both in one line at the booth, but the two fees are never folded into a single lower price. See our full ticket price page for every site and how the fees add up for each of our tours.

How much time does the walkway actually take?

Plan about 30 to 45 minutes for most visitors, since the walkway runs in one direction through all seven residential units of Terrace House 2, with nowhere to loop back for a second look without walking the whole path again. Keep the full 45 minutes if mosaics and frescoes are the reason you came to Ephesus in the first place, since several rooms reward a slower look.

Can you visit with a wheelchair or a walker?

No. The Terrace Houses have no accessible route: the walkway inside runs over stairs and steel platforms with no ramp or elevator anywhere along it. A wheelchair user can still see the lower part of Ephesus itself by entering and returning through the Lower Gate, as we set out on our wheelchair access page, but the Terrace Houses will not be part of that visit.

Which of our tours includes the ticket?

Marble, Mosaics and Artemis is built around this ticket: it walks Ephesus from the Upper Gate to the Lower Gate, goes through the Terrace Houses along the way, and adds the Temple of Artemis on the drive back. On a longer call, our Your Ship, Your Day tour can add the Terrace Houses to almost any route, and it sometimes fits into All-Aboard Ephesus if your hours allow.

Who should skip the extra ticket?

If your call is short, or your group is more interested in the theater and the Library of Celsus than in mosaic floors, the Terrace Houses are an easy thing to leave out. Young children rarely stay interested in the walkway for long, and the line to buy the extra ticket at the gate can eat into a tight morning. Neither choice is wrong: we plan the route around whichever way your group actually wants to spend the time you have. Tell us your ship and hours and we will say plainly whether it fits your call.