hercules gate ephesus

Hercules Gate is located at the beginning of Curetes street. Heracles' relics are visible on the two columns. It is a gate dividing the upper city of Ephesus. On this gate the frieze of Goddess Nicephorus (Roman Victoria) was situated.

In the mythology Hercules (Heracles) hunted a lion named Nemea. That’s why Hercules is depicted with a lion head on his body and also he is wrapped into the lion fell. These two pillars which are representing Hercules from the 2nd Century. But we know that this gate was erected on the 5th Century. That means in the ancient time they removed these two pillars from somewhere else in the city to this location and used them here to build the gate.