You will start your half-day tour by visiting the ancient city of Ephesus as your first stop. Here, you will see one of the most magnificent excavations in the world, the Grand Theater, where Saint Paul preached, was the largest theater in antiquity with a capacity of 24,000 seats. You will visit the Ephesus terraced houses containing handsome frescoes from the 2nd century CE which extend up the hill. They once housed the wealthier and more prominent families of the city, who lavished the interiors with superbly preserved frescoes and mosaics. The decor and furnishings of the houses have provided some interesting information about the lifestyle of the Ephesian elite during the Roman and early Byzantine periods. Inevitably, the houses have been compared with smilar buildings found in parts of the Roman Empire, particularly with the villas of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The consensus is that the Ephesians houses are in no way inferior to these.