What to Buy in Ephesus, Turkey: 12 Things Worth Taking Home

What to buy in Ephesus, Turkey comes down to 12 things the valley makes or grows: hand-knotted carpets, leather, gold and silver jewelry, İznik-style ceramics, blue evil-eye glass, Şirince fruit wine, olive oil and its soap, cotton peştemal towels, Turkish delight and spices, copper coffee pots and hand-edged lace. The ruins are for looking; the shopping happens in Selçuk, about 3 kilometers away, in the hill village of Şirince and in the Kuşadası bazaar.

What should I buy in Ephesus?

Buy what the region makes by hand: a wool carpet or kilim, a leather jacket or bag, gold or 925 silver jewelry, hand-painted ceramics and blue evil-eye glass. For small gifts, Şirince fruit wine, Aegean olive oil, olive-oil soap, a cotton peştemal and fresh Turkish delight all travel well.

What to buy in Ephesus, Turkey, one by one

1. A hand-knotted carpet or kilim

Anatolian weavers tie their carpets with the symmetrical Turkish knot, one knot at a time, and a workshop visit lets you watch it done at the loom. Turn a carpet over: small, dense, even knots on the back mean more months of work, and natural dyes mellow with age. A flat-woven kilim is the lighter, less costly cousin. Our guide to buying rugs near Ephesus goes deeper.

2. Leather, cut to fit

Leather is one of this coast’s strengths: jackets, bags, belts and shoes, and a good workshop can adjust a piece to fit you. It suits the place, too, since Acts 18:3 calls Paul a tentmaker, a trade many scholars read as leatherwork. Good leather smells like leather, feels supple, and has even stitching and sewn linings; our guide to buying leather lists the checks.

3. Gold, priced by the gram

Turkish families buy gold for weddings and savings, so jewelers price it openly by weight and karat, often with the day’s gram rate in the window. Check the hallmark (585 is 14 karat, 750 is 18 karat, 916 the traditional 22 karat) and ask to see the piece weighed. Our guide to buying jewelry near Ephesus explains the rest.

4. A silver bee, the Ephesian souvenir

Of all Ephesus souvenirs, the bee is the one only this city can give. It was the emblem on its coins for centuries, and the priestesses of Artemis were called melissai, bees. Jewelers in Selçuk work it into pendants and earrings in 925 silver. The trade is old here: Acts 19 tells how Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, stirred up the riot that filled the Great Theater.

5. İznik-style ceramics

Plates, bowls and tiles painted with tulips, carnations and cobalt vines descend from the great İznik ware of the 16th century; Kütahya and revival studios keep the art alive today. Hand-painted pieces show brush texture and small variations, and quartz-rich ones feel heavy and ring when tapped. Our guide to buying ceramics shows how to tell a studio plate from a cheerful everyday one.

6. Evil-eye glass

The blue glass eye, nazar boncuğu, is the least expensive good souvenir in Ephesus and the most Turkish: it hangs over doors, cradles and car mirrors to turn away the envious look. Traditional beads are shaped one at a time in wood-fired furnaces at Nazarköy and Görece, two villages outside İzmir, and GoTürkiye’s guide to İzmir’s artisan towns lists the craft beside needle lace and olive-oil soap.

7. Şirince fruit wine

Twenty minutes above Ephesus, the village of Şirince makes sweet wines from peach, blackberry, pomegranate and quince, and its small shops offer tastings before you choose. Serve them chilled, with cheese or dessert.

8. Olive oil and olive-oil soap

Olive groves cover the hills around Selçuk, and the harvest comes each autumn. Choose extra virgin oil from the latest pressing, in a tin or a sealed bottle with a harvest date. Olive-oil soap, plain or scented with laurel, is the version that never leaks.

9. A cotton peştemal

The peştemal is the flat-woven cotton cloth wrapped around bathers in a Turkish bath. Thin, absorbent and quick to dry, it doubles as a beach towel, scarf or tablecloth and weighs next to nothing. The best known are woven in Buldan, an old textile town in Denizli province; look for a tight weave and hand-knotted fringes.

10. Turkish delight and spices

Lokum, soft cubes of sugar and starch flavored with rose, pistachio or pomegranate, is best fresh from a confectioner who lets you taste first; ask for vacuum packing. Add the flavors of Aegean cooking: red pepper flakes (pul biber), sumac, dried mint and wild thyme, sold loose at the Saturday market in Selçuk.

11. A copper or brass cezve

The cezve, the small long-handled pot Turkish coffee is brewed in, is hammered from copper or brass and often engraved by hand. If you mean to cook with copperware, check that the inside is lined with tin, kalay in Turkish; decorative pieces need no lining. Add a bag of finely ground Turkish coffee.

12. Lace and oya-edged scarves

Turkish women have long finished scarves with oya, tiny flowers and leaves worked in needle lace along the edge. You will find oya-edged cotton scarves and crocheted lace in the lanes of Şirince and at Selçuk’s market. They fold flat and weigh nothing.

Where to shop in Ephesus, Turkey

Shopping in Ephesus, Turkey really means shopping around it. Inside the ancient city there is little beyond the souvenir stalls by the gates. Selçuk, the nearest town, has jewelers, carpet and ceramic shops and the big Saturday market. Şirince is best for wine, olive oil, soap and lace, and the Kuşadası bazaar by the cruise port puts everything in one walk. In bazaars, a little friendly bargaining is part of the fun; workshops and fixed-price shops usually sell at the marked price. Cards are widely accepted; our Turkish lira page covers cash.

Getting it home

Reputable carpet and ceramic shops ship worldwide, insured, with papers stating material and origin; keep every receipt. An older carpet, roughly 100 years or more, needs a state museum certificate confirming that it may leave the country, which licensed dealers arrange, and ancient coins and artifacts may not leave Turkey at all. Wine and olive oil belong in checked luggage; ceramics travel best in the middle of the case, wrapped in clothes. Larger purchases at participating shops qualify for a tax-free refund; ask for the form when you pay.

Seeing the crafts with a guide

Many guests enjoy watching a carpet being knotted or a jacket being cut, and we are glad to include a workshop. Our private Ephesus tour includes lunch and a relaxed visit to local artisans keeping an old craft alive, at established, fully insured workshops of the kind the cruise lines recommend. Stay as long as you like; nobody will press you to buy, and if you would rather give the whole day to the ruins, simply say so. Your guide holds priority tickets, so you skip the ticket line; entrance fees are paid separately at the official price. Inside the ancient city, the day follows our stop-by-stop city tour route.