Commercial Agora in Ephesus Turkey

Commercial Agora was one of the largest marketplaces of antiquity. It was built in Hellenistic as a marketplace to trade local products of Asia. As the building had a square form, it was also called Tetragonal Agora in the written sources.

This site was located by the harbor making the building the commercial center of Ephesus City. When it was first built, the building was half of recent Agora’s size. According to excavations done at the beginning of the 1900s, Agora was expended during the Roman Era.

Commercial Agora was surrounded by Roman columns with a size of 110 meters/360 feet by each side. It had also two galleries on four sides. Most of these arched rooms were used as shops and shops used to have boards on which you could see what they used to sell. The building used to have two main entrances; one is known as the Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates other one is the Southern Gate of Agora.

Commercial Agora was not only used for trade but was also used as a meeting place for political associations and a court in which people gathered for justice. The marketplace of Ephesus City is also an important Biblical building in which St. Paul worked at this place with Priscilla and Aquila in their tent-making business.

The Marketplace of Ephesus City restoration has been not completed yet, broken marble and granite pieces are lying on the ground.