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The houses are located on the slopes of Bulbul Mountain, opposite the Hadrian Temple. Also called as "the houses of rich", these houses were for the important and wealthy people of Ephesus, as only rich people could afford such houses.
The houses were in a form that on each terrace, two houses, one facing the street on east and one facing the street on west, were built. The oldest of the houses were built in the first century BC, and most of the houses were restored in the second century AD. The houses seemed plain from outside, but inside were constructed with the highest standards of their date. They were decorated with mosaics and frescoes, and they had interior courtyards (peristyle) in the center, with the ceiling open.
These houses were mostly two-storied, upper stores have collapsed during time. On the ground floor there were living and dining rooms opening to the hall, and upstairs there were bedrooms and guest rooms. The heating system of the houses were the same as that in baths. Clay pipes beneath the floors and behind the walls carried hot air through the houses. The houses also had cold and hot water. The rooms had no window, only illuminated with light coming from the open hall, so that most of the rooms were dim. The excavations of the terrace houses started in 1960. The first frescoes, mosaics and other things found were taken to museums, but after that findings have been left in their original places. The restoration of the two of the houses have been finished and can be visited today.
Quoted from From KusadasiGuide.com with permission. |
