The ancient site of Ephesus was once one of the three largest cities in the Roman Empire. The city was important as a political, economic, and religious center in the Roman Empire, and today, the site is significant to architects and historians who are interested in its Greek, Roman, and Byzantine past. Along with Ephesus, Professor Louis Nelson's Architectures of the Mediterranean class visited Priene and Didyma, two other historically important sites along the Ionian Coast of Turkey, to better understand urban environments from these periods.
