The Celsus Library, assuredly the most re-known monument in Ephesus, was built between AD 100 and 110 by Gaius Iulius Aquila for his father, Senator Tiberius Iulius Celsus Polemaeanus. The library can actually be interpreted as a heroon which was built over the burial chamber of the dead person.
Over the nine-stepped free stairs flanked by two statue bases a vestibule can be reached from which the main library room was entered. The aediculated architecture of the pompous façade contrasts with the brick-laid technique of the building’s interior although the floors and walls were revetted with marble. The library was destroyed during an earthquake around AD 270 and was not rebuilt. In the late antique period the remnants of the pompous façade served as the back wall to a street fountain. The re-erection was resumed during the years 1970–1978 with the financial help of A. Kallinger-Prskawetz.