Ephesus had two agoras (gathering places or market places), the Upper State Agora or Public Agora (Eleuthera Agora) and the Lower Commercial Agora (Tetragonos Agora).

The Upper Agora, in the Upper City, was in the city's administrative precinct, with a group of official buildings such as the council meeting place (the Bouleuterion or Odeion) and law courts.

Like the Lower Agora, it was first built during the Hellenistic period, and completely redesigned during the Roman period. As was usual in Greek and Roman cities, a number of monuments, statues and inscriptions, and practical constructions such as water fountains, were set up around the agora over the centuries.

To the north of the agora were the Upper Gymnasium, the Bouleuterion and the Prytaneion. Between the latter two bulidings stood the "Temenos" (τήμενος, sanctuary), a colonnaded courtyard in which stood an altar or two small temples (see gallery page 10).

The agora square was surrounded by stoas (roofed colonnades) on all four sides. Along the north side, the long, narrow Roman Basilica Stoa replaced a Hellenistic single-aisled stoa.

In the centre of the west side of the square itself was a small peripteral temple, thought to have been dedicated either to Divus Julius and Dea Roma, Augustus or Isis (see below).

On the south side (see next page) was a Hellenistic gate of the 2nd or 1st century BC. On the southwest corner stood the monumental Hydrekdocheion ("Water Palace"), also known as the "Fountain of Gaius Laecanius Bassus".