The Lelegians and Carians were the first kingdom who controlled the area.
2000 B.C. Thehistory of the city dates back to around 2000 B.C., and then it fell under the control of the Athenian King Androclos.
Androklos, one of the sons of King Cedrus (Condros) founded the city. He was an Ionian Greek.
750 B.C. The Cimmerians and then the Lydians, under King Croesus, seized the city.
750 B.C. The city started to develop.
560 B.C. The Persians start to attack the Lydian kingdom.
546 B.C. Ephesus was conquerred by Cyrus the Great

The city was relocated in Artemision.
330 B.C. Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.), a Macedonian, took control from the Persians.
323 B.C Alexander died and one of his commanders, Lysimachus, took control of this part of Alexander’s empire and gace a name to his new enpire (Pergamon Empire)
Lysimachus (330 B.C.–281 B.C.), reestablished Ephesus on the northern slopes of Mt Coressus and the southern and western slopes of Mt Pion. He made the citizens of Colophon and Lebedus move to Ephesus, helped the city become the most densely populated in Anatolia.
188 B.C. After the Battle of Magnesia, Ephesus fell to the kings of Pergamon.
133 B.C. The last Pergamon king, Attalus III, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome and Ephesus became a city of the Roman Empire, under the rulership of Julius Caesar.
63 B.C. With the reign of Augustus (63 B.C.–14 A.D.), Ephesus went through its first golden age lasting 200 years.
100 A.D The population of Ephesus was about 200,000.
300 A.D. The 3rd century A.D., to the middle of the 4th century A.D., was a time of strife and upheaval.
527 A.D. Ephesus had its third golden age until the Justinian era, the Byzantine emperor who ruled from 527 A.D.–565 A.D.
655 A.D. The Arabs took Ephesus.
717 A.D. The Arabs take Ephesus a second time.
1090 A.D. The Seljuk (Selcuk) Turks destroyed the city.

Later the Byzantines retook the city.
1300 A.D. The Seljuks once again pillaged the city.
Followed by Catalonian mercenaries working for the Byzantines
One more time by the Turks seized the city.
1403 A.D. Ephesus was finally completely ruined by Timer-Leng, a member of Turkish Barlas tribe.
1869 A.D. 1863-74 J.T. Wood, the British railway engineer came and dug in Ephesus.
1904-05 D.G Hogarth excavated here on behalf of the British Museum.
1921-22 Austrian Archaeological Institute worked.
1995- ….. Austrian archaeologists have been carrying on with Turkish team.