Merhaba, and a small warning before we begin: this is one of the cheekier stories in Ephesus, and I suspect the ancient Ephesians would have enjoyed telling it far more than we do.
Set into the marble paving a few steps from the Library of Celsus is a worn carving that thousands of people photograph every day without ever knowing what they are looking at. A footprint. A woman’s head. A shape read as a heart or a purse. A rectangle. It is widely called the oldest advertisement in the world, and the traditional reading is that it points the way to one of the city’s more colourful establishments.
Whether or not you believe every word of it, it is one of the most enjoyable stops on any walk through Efes, and it always gets a laugh from my groups. Here is what we can actually see, what we reasonably guess, and what is simply good fun.
The short answer
The carvings on the marble street beside the Library of Celsus are real and genuinely ancient. Reading them as an advertisement for a brothel is a traditional interpretation, not a proven fact, and the famous secret tunnel from the library has no archaeological support at all. It is a wonderful story — just told with a wink.
What is the “oldest advertisement in the world”?
On the marble paving of the street that runs between the Great Theatre and the Library, you will find a small group of symbols cut into a single slab. They are shallow, sun-bleached and easy to miss, and there is no sign, no rope and no arrow pointing at them.
For generations, guides have explained this little cluster as an advertisement: a set of directions for sailors and travellers who had come off the ships at the old harbour and could not read a word of Greek. If that reading is right, it is one of the earliest pieces of pictorial advertising anyone has found — not painted on a wall or scratched on a pot, but cut into the road itself, where every visitor to the city would walk over it.
Remember what kind of place this was. Ephesus was a harbour city of perhaps a quarter of a million people, with a commercial agora trading with the whole Mediterranean and a library finished in the early second century AD by a son honouring his father Celsus. In a port that busy, in a hundred languages, a picture was worth a great deal more than a sentence.
What do the carvings on the marble mean?
The traditional interpretation goes like this.
| Symbol | The traditional reading |
|---|---|
| A left footprint | Walk this way — and some add that if your own foot did not fill it, you were too young to go |
| A woman’s head | What is waiting at the end of the walk |
| A heart or a purse | Bring money. Love, here, is for sale |
| A rectangle | The great Library across the way — your landmark for getting your bearings |
Put together, the message reads something like: walk this way, past the library, bring payment, and a woman will be waiting. An advertisement with no words at all, for an audience that spoke a hundred languages. It is a clever idea, and you can see why it has delighted visitors for so long.
An honest footnote. Not everyone reads the slab the same way. The shape called a heart is read by some as a purse or a coin bag; the rectangle is read variously as the library, a plaque or a name-board; and there is no guarantee that every mark was cut at the same moment by the same hand. Enjoy the story, but hold the details loosely.
Was there really a brothel in Ephesus?
There is certainly a building near the junction of Curetes Street and the marble street that has long been identified as the brothel — politely called the Love House here. It stood in the busiest commercial heart of the city, beside the baths and the public latrines, opposite the library, a short walk from the shops and from the smart terrace houses on the slope above. Exactly where such a business would do very well indeed.
And like any great port full of sailors and travellers far from home, Ephesus would certainly have had its share of these establishments. That much is simply what ancient cities were.
The identification of this particular ruin as the brothel, however, is traditional and widely repeated rather than settled. Some read the same walls as a large private house of the peristyle type, or as part of the neighbouring bath complex. As with so much at Ephesus, the confidence of the retelling runs a good way ahead of the evidence.
Is there a secret tunnel from the library to the brothel?
Ah, the tunnel. This is the part every guide is asked about, usually before I have finished the sentence.
The favourite local legend says a secret passage ran underground from the Library of Celsus straight to the brothel, so that a respectable gentleman could tell his wife he was off to read among the scrolls, slip down the tunnel, and emerge somewhere considerably more entertaining.
It is a marvellous story and I would love it to be true. In honesty, it is almost certainly a tale grown up around a famous ruin because we want it to be there. No passage of that romantic sort has been excavated. What genuinely does run beneath these streets is the city’s drainage system — very fine Roman engineering, and nobody’s idea of a discreet escape route. Besides, the two buildings face each other across a street you can cross in a few seconds; a tunnel would have been a great deal of digging to save no time at all.
I still tell it, though. Every great city deserves its legends, and I think the Ephesians would have approved of this one.
So how much of the story is actually true?
Let me be the honest guide here, because that matters to me more than a good punchline.
| The claim | Verdict | What we can honestly say |
|---|---|---|
| The carvings exist and are ancient | Solid | You can stand over them and see them for yourself |
| They advertise a brothel | Traditional | A plausible and much-repeated interpretation, not a proven one |
| It is the world’s oldest advertisement | Traditional | A lovely superlative that nobody can really test — a story, not a record |
| The nearby ruin was the brothel | Traditional | Widely identified as such; other readings of the building exist |
| A secret tunnel ran from the library | Legend | No archaeological support. Enjoy it as folklore |
None of that ruins the fun. It simply means you should take the story for what it is: a glimpse of the earthy, cosmopolitan, money-making spirit of a great ancient port, polished by a thousand retellings.
Where to find the carving in Ephesus
The slab sits in the marble-paved street beside the Library of Celsus and the Gate of Mazeus and Mithridates, on the stretch of road that links the Library square with the Great Theatre. Depending on which gate you started from, you will meet it either just before the Library or just after it — and either way it is very easy to walk straight over it without noticing.
- Slow down as the Library comes into view. Everyone looks up at the façade. The carving is under your feet, at the edge of the paving.
- Look for the outline of a foot first. It is the clearest of the marks and the easiest to pick out in bright light.
- Come early or late. Low, raking sun throws the shallow lines into relief; harsh midday light flattens them, and the Library square is at its most crowded in the middle of the day.
- Mind your footing. Ancient marble polished by twenty centuries of feet is genuinely slippery, especially after rain.
- Sort out the ticket before you travel — see my Ephesus entry ticket prices update. If you are coming ashore for the day, my walkthrough of the Kuşadası cruise port route to Ephesus covers the timings.
When I guide here I always stop the group before I say anything and let them find it themselves. The delight on people’s faces when they work out what the Ephesians were advertising twenty centuries ago is one of the small joys of this job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where exactly is the oldest advertisement carving in Ephesus?
It is set into the marble pavement of the street beside the Library of Celsus, on the stretch running towards the Great Theatre. Nothing marks it, so slow down near the Library and look down at the stones at the edge of the paving.
Is it really the oldest advertisement in the world?
That is the popular claim, and it may well be one of the earliest pieces of pictorial advertising we have. But the whole reading is an interpretation of four worn symbols, so treat the superlative as a wonderful story rather than a proven record.
Was the building near the Library really a brothel?
It is traditionally identified as the city’s brothel, the so-called Love House, and its position beside the baths and the busiest street in the city fits. As with much at Ephesus, the identification is repeated everywhere but is not beyond doubt.
Is there honestly a secret tunnel to the library?
No. No such passage has been excavated, and the two buildings stand only a few metres apart across the street. What does run under the paving is the Roman drainage system. The tunnel is best enjoyed as local legend.
Is this stop suitable for children?
Yes. There is nothing to see but worn carvings and old stones, and the story can be told as gently or as plainly as you like. Children usually love hunting for the footprint, and most of them spot it before the adults do.
Do I need a special ticket to see it?
No. The carving lies on the main walking route through the site, so a standard Ephesus entrance ticket is all you need. It costs nothing extra to see — only the knowledge of where to look.
See it for yourself with a licensed guide
This is the stop where the whole group ends up laughing. The carvings are real, the legends are wonderful, and knowing which is which is half the pleasure of visiting Efes.
I am Hasan Gülday, a nationally licensed Turkish tour guide. My home ground is Ephesus and the Aegean — the heart of the ancient world and of the Seven Churches — but my licence covers the whole country, from Istanbul and Cappadocia to the Black Sea and the southern coast. If you would rather have these streets explained than simply walked, you can look over my guiding rates and areas or write to me about your dates.
Hoş geldiniz — and while you are planning, you may as well learn how to pronounce Ephesus properly before you arrive. I hope to walk these ancient streets with you.
