| Aphrodisias lies one hundred and
seventy kilometers from Kusadasi, in
foothills of Mount Baba Dagi not far
from the village of Geyre by the
river Maeander. In antiquity
Aphrodisias was dedicated who was
worshipped as the city's patron as
it testified by the remains of a
temple dedicated to her in the first
century B.C. . It was a refined city
of culture, popular with artists,
writers and philosophers such as
Alexander of Aphrodisias, an
authoritative commentator on
Aristotle or Chariton, who wrote
erotic novels. The city was much
loved by the Emperor Augustus who
took an interest in its welfare and
in his honour the citizens erected
the Sebasteion, a street sanctuary
complex with decorated columns.
Before entering the
archaeological zone, visit the
Museum which has a collection of
sculptural treasures, Graeco-Roman
statues and ceramics dating from
Bronze Age. The head of Apollo is
breathtakingly ravishing, perfext
and slightly feminine and the
remains of the loe,wer part of a
statue of Aphrodite, are suggestive
and modern, with the goddess's legs
crossed- which unusual. There is
also a fine frieze taken from the
Monument of Zoilos depicting the
slave who was a native of
Aphrodisias being freed by Augustus.
The Theatre is on the hillside, on
the Acropolis. It was built by the
Greeks in the first century B.C. and
reconstructed and enlarged by Marcus
Aurelius. Its capacity was for over
ten thousand spectators and it later
became an arena for gladiators and
wild animals.
Next to the theatre are ruins of
the Baths of Hadrian, an impressive
building erected in the second
century A.D. . The marble flooring
is an perfect state of conservation.
The complex was made up of five
different areas with a gymnasium
with columns and two large pools. At
the bath's entrance through the main
gate there is a sinister door-knocker
depicting the head of Medusa. The
Odeum or city meeting-place, had
both stage and steps made of with
marble. Not many of these survive,
as is the case with few fluted
columns remaining in the Temple of
Aphrodite behind the Odeum. The
temple was built in the first
century B.C. with a double columned
structure and a cella and an atrium.
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FETHIYE
BODRUM
MARMARIS
ANTALYA
