Post by lale on Nov 13, 2006 19:56:14 GMT 2
Aphrodisias lies one hundred and seventy kilometers from Kusadasi, in the foothills of Mount Baba Dagi not far from the village of Geyre by the river Maeander.
As its name suggests, Aphrodisias was named after Aphrodite, a goddess of nature, love and fertility and was the site of one of her most famous sanctuaries.
Although the history of Aphrodisias stretches farther back in time, it rose to prominence in the first century BC and enjoyed a long period of prosperity. Besides being a significant religious site, it was also a cultural and intellectual center to which students and scholars flocked from all over the ancient Hellenistic world. With an excellent marble supply, perhaps the finest available anywhere, the city became the center of a school of sculpture that flourished for a period of six hundred years. Many of its marvelous works of art are now housed in the local museum.
The Temple of Aphrodite was the focal point of the city in antiquity, as it still is today with its fourteen standing columns. The stadium, located in the northern end of the city, is probably the best preserved structure of this type in the Mediterranean. It could accommodate as many as 30,000 people. The theater, odeon (concert-hall), Bishop’s Palace, Baths of Hadrian are among other ruins.
East of the temple, one of the most attractive landmarks of Aphrodisias is a decorative gateway (in the picture) datable to the middle of the second century. It consisted of four rows of four columns and its main access was from the east, with a front row of spirally-fluted Corinthian columns facing a main north-south street.Its sixteen columns have been repaired and re-erected and upper portions partly replaced.
As its name suggests, Aphrodisias was named after Aphrodite, a goddess of nature, love and fertility and was the site of one of her most famous sanctuaries.
Although the history of Aphrodisias stretches farther back in time, it rose to prominence in the first century BC and enjoyed a long period of prosperity. Besides being a significant religious site, it was also a cultural and intellectual center to which students and scholars flocked from all over the ancient Hellenistic world. With an excellent marble supply, perhaps the finest available anywhere, the city became the center of a school of sculpture that flourished for a period of six hundred years. Many of its marvelous works of art are now housed in the local museum.
The Temple of Aphrodite was the focal point of the city in antiquity, as it still is today with its fourteen standing columns. The stadium, located in the northern end of the city, is probably the best preserved structure of this type in the Mediterranean. It could accommodate as many as 30,000 people. The theater, odeon (concert-hall), Bishop’s Palace, Baths of Hadrian are among other ruins.
East of the temple, one of the most attractive landmarks of Aphrodisias is a decorative gateway (in the picture) datable to the middle of the second century. It consisted of four rows of four columns and its main access was from the east, with a front row of spirally-fluted Corinthian columns facing a main north-south street.Its sixteen columns have been repaired and re-erected and upper portions partly replaced.