Night Museum project in Ephesus launched

IZMIR

The Night Museum project, which aims to bring together Türkiye's unique historical places and rich cultural heritage with visitors in a completely different atmosphere after sunset, has commenced in the ancient city of Ephesus in İzmir’s Selçuk district, which welcomes thousands of people every year in the summer season.

Ephesus, which has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 2015, is now open during nighttime hours thanks to the project. With the renewed lighting works, visitors have the opportunity to visit the 2,300-year-old ancient city after sunset.

A meeting was held on May 4 to launch the project in the ancient city.

"The concept of night museum is being implemented for the first time this year, especially in open areas, ruins and historical cities. The first location to start this project was Ephesus. There is a lot of demand from some of our historical areas such as Ephesus,” said İzmir Governor Süleyman Elban, adding, “People from both Türkiye and abroad want to see these areas. But unfortunately, the capacity of these areas is limited. Therefore, it was necessary to extend the visiting hours here further, but daylight was insufficient. The Culture and Tourism Ministry has prepared a lighting project for the ancient city. In this way, we have now extended the visiting hours 12 a.m.”

Emphasizing that temperatures in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions are very high in six months of the year, Elban said, “People have difficulty in visiting these areas during the day. Opening these areas to visitors during the cooler hours of the night provides convenience and comfort for visitors.”