Aphrodisias site and museum - photos Photo Gallery by Andrys Basten at pbase.com

Aphrodisias site and museum - photos

On the way to Pamukkale, we drove to the less-visited ruin site of Aphrodisias ( Aphrodesias ) which is quite a distance from the closest city, but it was as interesting to me as Ephesus. My photos don't include the famous stadium (seated 30,000) because I never made it over to that side.

This time we hit the museum first, as Aphrodisias was most known for its academy of sculpture, with copies later found in Italy and Greece. Statues were carved from the white, gray-blue Carian marble nearby. It was also a center for philosophy (Xenocrates) and medicine.

While they've found settlements going back to ~2800 BC, its heydey was under the Romans (1C BC to 5C BC). Originally known as Lelegonopolis, it was renamed to Megalopolis and later to Ninoe, after Ninos, the King of Assyria. After the 3rd C. BC, it became Aphrodisias.

In the 6th C., the name was changed to Stavropolis by the Christians to erase memories of free-spirit Aphrodite, but the locals preferred the name Caria, later likely modified to the name Geyre in Turkish.
An earthquake in the 7th C. had devastating effect, but as you can see in the photos, this remains quite a beautiful site. Excavations continue (since 1961) under Professor Kenan Erim.

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A relief at the Aphrodisias museum	To the left a bit	I don't know who is represented in this one. Let me know if you do.	Also, I don't know "who" is on his left :-)
Didn't learn what caused the spotting.	"Eternity" feeling some foreboding about eternity Description there: "AION - (Eternity) raises his right hand to his head in a gesture of foreboding and future knowledge, like a seer."	Philosopher Row	Eastern slope of the larger of two prehistoric settlement mounds ~2800 BC The ruins that survived are of 2nd-3rd century, however.
The Romans built over the older sites. Beautiful landscape.	Possibly Hadrian Baths?	Gorgeous trees	It felt like Italy here.
Theater, with colorful stone stage Seating was for over 10,000. Built by the Greeks in the 1st C. and enlarged by Marcus Arelius. It later became an arena for gladiators and wild animals.	Zoomed the little Elph S400 for stage detail More info (and then some) on the theater at the Whitman website.	Columns R Us (seen from a pathway above)	To be identified later ...
Now at lower level of the site	There's always a sarcophagus nearby in Ancient Anatolia. Sturdy white column at left, and what seems like mix and match otherwise.		Temple of Aphrodite in the distance.
Another sarcophagus in forefront. Am walking towards objects in back, right.		This reminded me of Machu Picchu's Lower Urban Center.
After the earthquake (especially 7th C.)	This was a sundial.	Baths of Hadrian section	What's left of The Temple of Aphrodite across the way Just whimsy, but this looked to me like a mother column showing her 2 young'uns the master columns of the old temple, the focus of the old site :-)
Coming upon the marble Odeon (small greek theater) Built 2nd-3rd C., it once had a roof, with light coming from tall arched windows in the curved outer wall	At an entrance, on the right side While the lower nine rows of marble seats survived intact, the 12 rows of the upper seating collapsed along with supporting vaults.	The Odeon of the Bouleuterion (Council House) Seating for ~1750. The marble on lower portion, with large seats on top row, stayed intact unlike most stone theater seating we've seen.	Stone detail that I found quite beautiful. In the 5th C., the space was used as a concert hall and lecture room and for competitive displays. It had probably already lost its roof.
The stones were like modern art to me. Note the lion's feet at the ends of the rows.	Closer look at stone detail	Marble seats, with lion's paws marking end of a row Shot this from radial stairway at end of row in that section.	The Tretrapylon - gateway to the site. 2nd C. AD Built during Hadrian's reign, it had 4 rows of 4 columns. Am walking from site to the gate out.
Tetrapylon - from the front.	Tetrapylon - from left, as we exit the site You can see the Temple of Aphrodite in the distance. This probably marked a Sacred path to it.	Tetrapylon - a last look at Aphrodisias while exiting

comment |

Sukru Tul		13-Jan-2007 05:31
Leo Thomas, The grave was belongs to Prof. Erim who excavated city from early sixties to 1990 when he died by a heart spasm. He was child of Turkish ambassadeur family, graduated from Princeton University Department of Classics. Your photos and interest is great!

Leo Thomas		19-Sep-2006 12:43
We visited Aphrodisias last December as paart of Cosmos tour, I am now putting together a foto album of our trio. I have a picture of a grave surrounded by ttrees with the Temple of Aphrodite in the backgrounf. From memory in was off to the left, behind the the Propylon. Could you please tell me what it is. Thanking you

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