Marble Street (Ephesus)

Marble Street, more properly known as Curetes Street, was the main thoroughfare of ancient Ephesus, running roughly 210 meters from the Gate of Heracles down to the Library of Celsus and linking the city's political center near the upper agora with its commercial heart below. Its name recalls the Curetes, a class of priests associated with the myth of Artemis's birth, who were said to have clashed their weapons together to keep the goddess Hera from noticing the secret delivery of the twins Artemis and Apollo. The earliest traces of the street date to the third century BC, when it was no more than a gravel track, but during the Roman period it was paved in marble and lined with statues, shops, workshops and civic buildings. Repeated earthquakes in the third and fourth centuries AD damaged the street and its monuments more than once, each time prompting renovation, and grooves cut into the stone still show where residents fought to keep their footing on its polished, often water-slicked surface.