The two thousand year old ancient city Afrodisias' story is as impressive as the myths.
Famous Turkish photographer Ara Guler who traveled to Denizli, a southwestern Turkish city, in 1958 lost his way while returning to Izmir via Aydin and decided to spend the night at the first village he came across along the road. The only lights that were on in the village late at night were at Geyre's café. That small café with its walls surrounded by sculptures and marble tables decorated with handmade embroideries made the artist
forget his exhaustion. Guler asks: "Where is this place? How did these stones come here?" The owner of the café says, "There are plenty of them here." Guler was stunned by the response and impatiently waited for daybreak. The village that Guler discovered as a result of losing his way and where he found shelter was Geyre settled on the antique city Afrodisias. A magical adventure awaited the artist who rushed into the historical streets of Geyre after grabbing his camera with the first rays of the sun. Photographer estimating that each shot would record a note from history took photographs in Geyre until all his film was used and rushed to Istanbul.
Developing the films and showing them to some archeologists, Guler sent all the photos to Kenan Erim, a faculty member at Princeton University in the US. After inspecting the photographs, Erim immediately came to Istanbul on the first flight and traveled to Geyre.
Then, Guler's photographs changed the future of both Afrodisias and Geyre villagers. Professor Erim began excavations in 1960 with permission from Ankara and tried to excavate whatever lay underground until his death in 1990. Although it has been excavated for many years and artifacts filling many museums were found, it is determined that 80 percent of Afrodisias still lies under the ground. Nowadays Erim's students attempt to classify and commit artifacts into written records.
Aphrodisias tour is a trip to one of the exceptional archeological sites of Turkey, map of location. This is the City of Aphrodite, Goddess of Love or Venus as Romans called her. The tranquility of the site and the Temple of Aphrodite make a tour to this mystical site more than worthwhile.
The ruins spread over a large area as you walk through to explore it, you come to Roman bath complex and a market place agora both very large in size. There is also a fine museum displaying artefects discovered here by late prof Kenan Erim. The beauty of marble work is mainly due to first a famous sculpture academy in Roman times and second a high-grade marble, which takes fine polising, quarried only a few kilometers away at Babadag.
The records of first settlements date back to at least Early Bronze Age, 2800 BC. Over the site there used to be the houses of Geyre village but after the earthquake the village was moved to a couple of kms away. The various fruit trees and cypresses trees are what we find left from the village Geyre.
The site is located close to Pamukkale ( Cotton Fortresses). When driving from Kusadasi or Selcuk to Pamukkale take turning to the right at the sign post showing Karacasu. So guided tours to Pamukkale can conveniently incorporate Aphrodisias to their tour itineraries.
Be warned that you need good walking shoes to cover a site of this size.
A P H R O D I S I A S T O U R
A general view of Aphrodisias, alot remains to be excavated
Among the ruins you will find an elaborate Tetrapylon to the Godds's Temple and a temple of tremendous size with some of its fine marble columns standing and others lying in the ground. Further to these, a beautiful marble odeon still in excellent condition, a huge stadium capable to serve 30,000 spectators and a Roman theatre of 15,000 seats capacity and next to it a colonnaded palaestra. Plus the great Portico of Tiberius.
The temple discovered in the excavations of 40 years efforts earned the award of "the best restored 'artwork' in the world". The buildings used for the senate and theatre were also discovered. Most of the thousands of artworks found during the excavation are kept in storage and the remaining artifacts are exhibited in museums. Hundreds of foreigners visit the various Aphrodite sculptures exhibited in museums every day. The Geyre Foundation supported by Kocbank prepared a massive project to establish a museum. After the approval of the "Main Protection Plan" of the area by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, construction of the museum will begin in the following months. "Afrodisias Archeological Park" is estimated to cost a total of $50 million. The Geyre Association is ready to provide $3 million for the museum that will be constructed for the exhibition of artifacts recovered from the ground.
