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Travel Ephesus |
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Around Ephesus |
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Aphrodisias |
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Birth
place of the goddess of love...
On the arena of Aphrodisias, the city of the Goddess
of Love and Beauty, gladiators used to get into
fatal combats before the eyes of 30,000 spectators
for the honour of their goddess. Artists of this
city used to immortalie the human body and psy
chology in marble, which is admired even today, 2000
years later. Aphrodisias, a city bearing a history
of 7000 years, is located in Geyre village, Aydin.
The sun warms the civilizations and shines upon
Aphrodisias over Baba Mount. The mount blesses
fertility with the melted snow rushing down from its
2308m. high peaks to the plain situated on the
western side, as it has been doing since centuries.
And the village of Geyre, 13 km to Aydin, Karasu,
from the Eastern direction, has been hand in hand
with olive, walnut, ponogranate trees and emerald
green orchards for centruies.
The place is a plateau 600 meters high from he sea
level. Dandalaz brook run s along the southern
borders of the plateau, then turns to west and
finally reaches mhytical Menderes river 25 km. down.
Menderes running delicately through the valley of
civilizations, becomes breathless around Karine and
carries Aphrodithe's salut e to the Mediterranean.
Aphrodisias is the city of Goddess of love;
Aphrodithe. She comes from the depths of the ancient
times, and meets us for the first time in Neolithic
era, as the caring mother goddess.
The first settlements on this furtile land appear
7800 years ago, in late neolithic and calcolithic
eras. They continue during bronze and the following
ages.
The answer to how this Mother-Goddess cult came here
goes back to the home of Israel sons: Sidon. The
goddess of love came to be known as Astartia in
Sidon and as Istar in Babylon and Ninova. According
to Byzantine historian Stephanus the first name of
Aphrodisias was Lelegonpolis. Later it was called
Megapolis and following the reign of Assyrian King
Ninos, Ninoi. After the destruction of their city by
Meds and Babylons, Assyrians bring their Istar cult
to this intact site. Depictions of Nino s and his
wife Semiramis' profiles scraped on a relief, which
came into light during excavations, prove this view.
We get the first source of information about
Aphrodisias from Aphrodisian historian Apollonios
who wrote a book on Karia region. In the year 2 BC
Aphrodisias had established an alliance with its
neighbouring city of Plarasa to mint money. In 82 BC,
Roman general Sulla presents a golden crown and a
holy double-bladed axe to the temple of Aphrodithe.
This act is a proof of t he increased importance
gained by the city due to Roman sovereignity.
During the Roman emperorship period which starts
with Augustus, Aphrodisias became a rich, well known
and important city. In Byzantine period Christianity
could not succeed to invade the city at a short
time, consequently paganism associated with A
phrodithe's personality continued to exist. However
at the end of the paganism and Christianity duality,
Christians had ruled the city and changed its name
into Stauropolis. This event caused all the
matchless sculptures to be ruined and destroyed. In
July, 1969 the arrival of a young Turkish
archeologist had changed the fate of Aphrodisias and
also his own. This young man, who had dedicated
himself to Aphrodisias, was Kenan Erim. Prof.Dr.
Kenan Erim had staned the scientific excavations in
1961 and had lived with it until he died in Nov
3,1990. Everything we see in Aphrodisias today is
his traces. |
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Ephesus Yesterday & Today |
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