Şirince Village, Turkey: A Guide to the Hill Village Near Ephesus

Where is Şirince?

Şirince is a hill village in the Selçuk district of Izmir province, about 8 km east of Selçuk town and 11 km from the ruins of Ephesus. The road climbs through olive groves and orchards, and the village sits in a fold of the hills, noticeably cooler than the coast in summer.

About 600 people live there year-round, most of them in farming or tourism. The centre is car-free: you park or get dropped at the edge and walk up its stone lanes.

How to get to Şirince

From Selçuk by dolmuş

White minibuses (dolmuş) marked Selçuk–Şirince leave from the Selçuk bus station and stop in front of the old terminal by the town hall. They run roughly every 20 minutes in summer and every 30 minutes in winter, from early morning until the evening, and take about 15 to 20 minutes up the hill. Pay the driver in cash, and ask when the last minibus goes back down; after that the only option is a taxi.

From Kuşadası and the cruise port

There is no direct public transport from Kuşadası. You take a dolmuş to Selçuk first and change there, which turns a 35-minute drive into the best part of an hour and a half. If you are coming off a ship, a private transfer or tour is the easier way: we pick you up at the port gate and have you back well before all-aboard.

From Izmir

Şirince is an easy day out from Izmir: about an hour and a quarter by car, or a train or bus to Selçuk and then the dolmuş. On a private tour we pick you up at your Izmir hotel, and Şirince pairs naturally with Ephesus on the way, as our Ephesus tour from Izmir explains.

A short history of Şirince

For centuries the village was Kirkintzes (Kırkınca in Turkish), a Greek Orthodox community in the hills above Ephesus. Nobody is sure where the name comes from. A popular story says freed slaves settled here and called the place Çirkince, "ugly", to keep others away; another links it to the Turkish word for forty, after forty families or forty freed slaves. Hellenistic and Roman remains have been found around the village, so people have farmed these hills for a very long time.

In the 19th century the village grew rich on figs, tobacco, olives and wine, and built its churches, a school and the tall stone-and-plaster houses you see today. That world ended with the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923–24. The Greek families left for Greece, where many of their descendants founded the village of Nea Efesos, and Turkish families from northern Greece were settled in their homes. They brought their own winemaking traditions with them, which is part of why Şirince is known for wine today.

In 1926 the governor of Izmir gave the village its present name, Şirince, which means "pleasant" or "charming". It stayed a quiet farming village until the road was paved in the 1980s and restorers began saving the old houses. The village also appears in Greek literature: the narrator of Dido Sotiriou's novel Farewell Anatolia comes from Kirkintzes.

A more recent footnote: in December 2012 Şirince made world news when New Age believers predicted it would survive the "Mayan apocalypse", and crowds of visitors, journalists and police came up the hill to see.

Things to do in Şirince

Most of Şirince is about wandering. Give yourself time to leave the main street, climb the side lanes and look back over the roofs to the olive groves.

Walk the old village

The houses climb the hillside in rows: whitewashed upper floors, stone ground floors, wooden shutters and red tiled roofs. Many have been restored as small hotels and cafés, but people still live and work in them; you will see peppers drying on balconies and the odd tractor squeezing up a lane.

Church of St John the Baptist

The larger of the village's two churches, built in 1805, stands on a terrace above the centre. Inside are faded frescoes in the niches and a bare, peaceful nave; outside there is a wishing well topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary, where visitors drop a coin and make a wish. Entry is free.

Church of St Demetrios

Higher up the hill, the Church of St Demetrios has been restored, and its carved and painted wooden iconostasis is the most beautiful thing in the village. Before 1923 the villagers set out from here every 15 August on a five-hour walk to the House of the Virgin Mary for the Feast of the Assumption. The view from the porch is worth the climb, and there is a small café next to it. Entry is free.

Turkish coffee brewed in hot sand

One of the small pleasures of Şirince is watching your coffee being made the old way. The copper cezve is pushed into a tray of hot sand, which heats it evenly from all sides, and lifted out just as the foam rises. It comes in a small cup with a glass of water and a piece of Turkish delight. Several cafés along the lanes make it this way.

The market: olives, oil and homemade goods

The lanes below the churches are lined with stalls and small shops. Look for the things the village actually makes or grows: olives and olive oil, olive oil soap, honey, pekmez (grape or mulberry molasses), pomegranate sauce, jams, dried peppers and aubergines, and handmade lace. Small stalls and cafés prefer cash, so carry a little in lira.

Where to eat

Lunch is not part of our Şirince tours, so you choose where to stop. Gözleme, a thin folded flatbread rolled out and cooked on a griddle in front of you, is the classic snack. Turkish families drive up at weekends for a long village breakfast, and several restaurants on the edge of the village have terraces looking out over the valley.

Nesin Mathematics Village

A short walk above the village, about 800 metres out, is the Nesin Mathematics Village, founded in 2007 by the mathematician Ali Nesin. Students come for summer courses in stone buildings built in the old village style, with an open-air theatre and a library. Curious visitors can walk up and look around; it is a working school, so keep to the paths and keep the noise down.

Şirince fruit wine: what to taste and buy

Şirince is known across Turkey for its fruit wines: blackberry, mulberry, peach, apple, melon, pomegranate, strawberry and more, alongside ordinary grape wines. Most are sweet and fruity rather than dry, closer to a dessert wine. Some people love them and some don't, which is exactly why tasting before you buy is a good idea.

On our Şirince wine tasting tour you taste more than 15 different wines, and the tasting is included in the tour price. Non-drinkers and children are welcome; tell us when you book and we arrange non-alcoholic tastings. If you buy bottles, they travel well in checked luggage wrapped in clothes.

Ephesus and Şirince in one day

This is the combination we recommend most. Ephesus is best early in the morning, before the heat and the cruise crowds; by early afternoon you want shade, a cool drink and something gentler. Şirince is 20 minutes up the road and gives you exactly that.

Our Ephesus & Authentic Village tour does it in one private day: Ephesus and the House of the Virgin Mary in the morning, then about an hour and a half in Şirince in the afternoon. If you would rather spend the afternoon tasting wine, we can add the wine tasting to a custom Ephesus day; message us on WhatsApp and we'll put it together.

A note on names: if you have read about the "terrace houses", those are the Terrace Houses of Ephesus, the Roman villas inside the ancient city, not a sight in Şirince. The village's own houses are terraced up the hillside, which is where the mix-up comes from.

Private tours that stop in Şirince

All our tours are private, with pickup at the Kuşadası cruise port, your hotel in Kuşadası, Selçuk or Izmir, arranged with you on WhatsApp. Prices are per person for a full group; the price changes with group size.

• Ephesus & Authentic Village is the one to choose on a first visit to the area.
• Wine Tasting: Şirince suits a relaxed half day or a second day after Ephesus.
• Epheso Orini is for those who want the village's two Orthodox churches with a guide, ending at the Temple of Artemis.
• Weaving & Handy Crafts is a hands-on morning with local weavers.
• Jeep Safari is the active option, through the hills and down to the beach.

Tips for visiting Şirince

• Come on a weekday if you can. Weekends bring Turkish families up for breakfast, and summer weekends get crowded. Spring and autumn are the loveliest seasons.
• Early morning and evening are quietest. Tour groups come up during the middle of the day and thin out by late afternoon.
• Wear shoes with grip. The lanes are steep, polished cobbles, and slippery after rain.
• Two to three hours is enough for the churches, a coffee and the market. Stay longer only if you want a long lunch or a wine tasting.
• Is Şirince touristy? The main street is, with stalls and shops end to end. Walk two lanes up and it is a village again, with gardens, cats and people going about their day.
• Staying overnight is the way to see it at its best, after the day visitors leave. The village has many small guesthouses in restored houses.

Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Jocelyn Erskine-Kellie (CC BY-SA 2.0), Jocelyn Erskine-Kellie (CC BY-SA 2.0), Kadı (CC BY 4.0), Jocelyn Erskine-Kellie (CC BY-SA 2.0), Yiğit Gökdemir (CC BY-SA 4.0), Helen Owl (CC BY-SA 4.0), Raicem (CC BY-SA 4.0), Erik Cleves Kristensen (CC BY 2.0).