Selcuk/Ephesus: my favorite parts in Turkey

Ephesus was probably my favorite place for ancient ruins.  It has the third largest library of the ancient world, the only one still left.  The city is mostly intact, so you can really get a sense of what it looked like so long ago.  This is the same Ephesus mentioned in the Bible, St. John came here, as it was the capital of Asia Minor, and he looked after Mary in her old age.  According to legend, the house where Mary lived and died is here.  
The modern town here is Selcuk.  I stayed in a guesthouse run by a Kurdish man.  He had Kurdish Syrian refugees for neighbors and the terrace had an amazing view of Selcuk castle.  It was nice for eating breakfast or sitting in the evening hearing the Muslim call to prayer and watching the city.  He took me to the beach on his motorcycle.  Riding along the Mediterranean is one of my favorite memories of the trip.  The beach had Muslim women fully covered and women in bikinis and everything in between.  You can see the Greek island of Samos from the beach.  Unfortunately the international ferries were not running due to Covid.
The town has ancient Roman or Byzantine aqueducts in the center of town.  It is walkable, there is a huge Saturday market, cafes, teahouses (only men go to teahouses in Turkey).  It felt like the small Italian towns I've been to in the past.  In the evenings, people gather and walk around the town and socialize outside.  It's a nice feeling of community.