In Ephesus, C. Julius had his library built in honor of his father C. Celsus, Governor General of the Province of Asia, in 135 AD You climb to the library hall by nine steps. There used to be four statues here symbolizing Justice, Virtue, etc. The niches in the walls were used for books. In front of the niches were low Ionic columns, made in the form of a table. The Latin inscription at the north end of the library and another Greek inscription at the south end deal with Celsus and his son Aquila. Celsus’s tomb is in the back. You can go to the tomb after going down the stairs on the right side, going through a 15m narrow and winding corridor. You will see a beautiful sarcophagus made of white marble, with a length of 2.5 m. The face of this sarcophagus is adorned with sculptures of serpents along with sculptures of Eros, Nike, and Medusa. Beneath the stairs leading to Marble Street is a newly discovered sarcophagus dating to the Byzantine period. At the bottom was found a lead plate on which the body lay.
Marble Street is the main street of the city: it has a remarkable sewer. The street leads to the Koressos Gate in the north and the Magnesia Gate in the south, and from there leads to the Seven Sleepers and the Temple of Artemis. There were columns of 8 m. high, on which graceful marble with borders were sculpted, along the left bank of the Calle de los Mármoles, in its length of 4 km.
The Serapis temple was built in dedication to Serapis, one of the Egyptian gods, in the 2nd century AD. Its façade reached up to 29 m. including pedestals and capitals. Three columns out of a total of eight were really colossal, that is, they were 15 m. tall and weighed 50 tons. Each was adorned with three Corinthian capitals made from a block of marble.