English: One of pictures taken just walking about. The Selçuk Castle or Ayasuluk Castle (Ayasuluk Kalesi, Selçuk Kalesi) is a castle on the same hill as the basilica of St. John. When Ephesus declined due to silting of its harbour, the Byzantines built Ayasuluk Castle, using stones from disused Greek and Roman buildings for its construction. On the slope of the hill they built the Basilica of St. John, which they protected with walls also. So the castle in this category is the original one of a later citadel. Maybe for that reason some pictures of the basilica speak of it as a “kale”.

By the end of the Byzantine period the harbour was abandoned, and Ephesus was centered around Ayasuluk Hill. The Seljuks conquered the area briefly, but after a reconquest it stayed Byzantine until a final take-over in the 14th century, again by the Seljuks. Within a century the Ottomans took over. In the mid-17th century it had a garrison of 40 soldiers. As the population kept declining, the castle was abandoned during the 18th century. In 1914 the village at the foot of the hill changed name from the Seljuk Ayasuluk to Selçuk.

Inside there are a small ruined mosque, a part of a former church turned into a cistern, a couple of Ottoman cisterns and ground plans of a couple of houses.