Fact Check

Yes, This Is an Artist's Recreation of the Ancient Greek City of Ephesus

The pictured street was a major thoroughfare and remains a modern tourist attraction.

Published Sept. 23, 2021

 (Screenshot, Reddit)
Image courtesy of Screenshot, Reddit
Claim:
An artist created a virtual illustration of Curetes, a street in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus.

In late September 2021, a Reddit user posted a virtual recreation of what was described as the ruins of a street in Ephesus, a city in ancient Greece. (What's left of Ephesus is in modern-day Turkey.)

The virtual recreation was done by Hungarian artist Adam Nemeth, who uses his skills to visually replicate what centuries-old structures may have looked like at their zenith. Nemeth's illustration of Curetes Street, which is dated 2017, can be found on his website:

https://virtualreconstruction.com/wp/?p=615

Curetes Street was a major thoroughfare in Ephesus, which was, as the Encyclopedia Britannica notes, "the most important Greek city in Ionian Asia Minor," and was founded around 600 B.C. The city ruins lie near the modern Turkish town of Selƈuk. According to Alaturkaturkey.com, a travel site:

Named after the priests who guarded the flame of Prytaneion, Curetes Street played host to religious festivals depicting the birth of Artemis, that culminated in a procession to the Temple of Artemis. The smooth marble streets also hide a surprising utility of the Roman world: underground drainage, sewage, and water pipes, water and waste flowing into and out of the city through clay pipes.

The Prytaneion was the symbolic center of a city in ancient Greece, which housed a public hearth which contained an eternal flame.

Other landmarks illustrated by Nemeth include the Library of Celsus, also in Ephesus, and Whitby Abbey, a 7th-century monastery in the U.K. that inspired Bram Stoker to write "Dracula."

Bethania Palma is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who started her career as a daily newspaper reporter and has covered everything from crime to government to national politics. She has written for ... read more