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GEYRE
(APHRODISIAS);
Imagine coming upon a city of
antiquity so rich in archeological treasure
That choice sculptures roll off the sides of
ditches, tumble from old walls, and lie jam-packed
amid colonnaded ruins." Those are
the words of Turkish archeologist Professor
Kenan Erim who directed the excavations at
Aphrodisias under the auspices of the New York
University. He is so closely associated with
the site That he can suitably be accepted as
the father of Aphrodisias and therefore fully
deserved to be buried near the Tetrapylon.
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The name of the city has the same root
as "aphrodisiac". Both words derive
from the Greek name for the goddess of love,
Aphrodite. Aphrodisias was one of several
ancient cities dedicated to the goddess of
love. Within the borders of Caria, during the
Roman period, Aphrodisias became an artistic
center with a famous school of sculpture.The
site has been systematically excavatsince 1961
by professor Kenan Erim and has yielded a
wealth of art treasures to archaeologists.Names
of many sculptors from Aphrodisias have been
seen in lots of works in Italy, Greece and
elsewhere. Fame of Aphrodisias is not only
limited to arts. It also had a number of
renowned scholars and writers as well as
philosophers, of whom the most notable was
Xenocrates
School of Sculpture
Statues were carved from the
local white, grayish blue Carian marble,
mostly from Babadag (Salbakos), 2,308 m /
7,572 ft high nearby mountain. Sculptors from
other areas came to Aphrodisias for annual
sculpture competitions. The eyes of the
statues found here are full of expression and
vitality and the bodies seem capable of moving.
The public monuments in Aphrodisias were
decorated with "peopled scrolls"
which were one of the characteristics of stone
carving produced by the school of sculpture in
Aphrodisias.
History of Aphrodisias
Excavations in the 24-meter-high (78 ft)
theater hill have revealed layers of
settlement going back to the Bronze Age (c.
2800-2200 B.C.)
It was founded in the 5C B.C. and flourished
under the Roman Empire (1C BC-5C AD). Mark
Antony recognized the autonomy of Aphrodisias
in the 1C BC. In the Byzantine period it was
first the seat of an archbishopric, then of
the metropolitan of Caria. In the 6C AD the
name of Aphrodisias was changed to Stavropolis,
the city of the Cross, to erase the pagan
goddess of love from people’s minds. As the
capital of Caria Aphrodisias was finally
called Caria which then became Geyre in
Turkish. Later in the 13C it was abandoned.
The Site
The Tetrapylon is
a monumental gateway which was probably built
in the 2C AD during the reign of Hadrian. It
had 4 rows of 4 columns. It is thought to have
marked the intersection of a major street with
a sacred way heading toward the sanctuary of
Aphrodite.
The Stadium is one of the best
preserved stadia in Anatolia. It is 262 m /
286 yards long, 59 m / 64 yards wide with 22
rows of seats with a 30,000 spectator capacity.
Originally it had a blind arcade on top of the
highest row surrounding all the seats. The
stadium was used for sporting, musical and
dramatic events. The eastern part of the arena
was for gladiatorial fights.
The Temple of Aphrodite, a late Hellenistic
building, was originally designed as an Ionic
temple with 40 columns arranged in an 8 by 13
rectangle. It was converted into a church in
the Byzantine period. The columns at each end
were removed, an apse was built in the eastern
section, and a baptistery and an atrium were
added to the west.
The affinities between Aphrodite and
Ishtar are generally well-recognized. In
Mesopotamian mythology, Ishtar was the
principal goddess of the Babylonians and
Assyrians. She was both the compassionate
mother of all life, who brought fertility and
relief from sickness, and the lustful goddess
of sexual love and war.
Life in the city was concentrated
around the Temple of Aphrodite. The cult of
Aphrodite was so popular That it took some
time before Christianity was fully accepted by
Aphrodisians.
The Bishop’s Residence consisted of halls
and rooms, is thought to have been the
residence of the bishop of Aphrodisias in
early Byzantine times. Its large audience
chamber was typical of a governor’s
residence in Roman provinces.
The Odeon is a semicircular building
and has 12 tiered rows of seats with lions’
feet. It actually had more rows of seats and
was once roofed. The seating capacity was
1,700. A corridor at the back of the stage led
to a porticoed area which was adorned with the
statues of important Aphrodisians and was
connected to the agora. The south-west corner
of the portico of Tiberius is a long and
narrow 1C AD basilica, an administrative and
an official building of importance.
The Baths of Hadrian were built under Hadrian
in the 2C AD. There were two pairs of large
rooms on either side of a huge central hall
called the caldarium.
Building of the Portico of Tiberius,
whose Ionic colonnade has partially been
restored, was started during the reign of
Tiberius, 1C AD which explains why it was
named after him. The central area of the
portico is occupied by a huge basin or pool,
175 m / 574 ft long, 25 m / 82 ft wide and 1 m
/ 3.28 ft deep with two semicircular
extremities at the north and east ends. The
portico may well have been a gymnasium or a
palaestra with an exercise area between the
colonnade and the pool.
The Theater was built in the late
Hellenistic period and later restored in the
1C BC, and according to its inscription it was
dedicated to Aphrodite and the people of the
city by Julius Zoilos, a former slave of
Octavian. The seating capacity was 8,000. The
stage building consisted of six vaulted
dressing or storage rooms out of which four
opened into the corridor behind the proskene.
The stage building wall in the north
parados had Greek inscriptions of important
documents related to the history of the city
such as letters of emperors to the city or
senatorial decrees. The orchestra and the
stage building were restored in the 2C AD in
order to make the building more suitable for
animal or gladiatorial fights. The theater was
seriously damaged in the 7C, and the
Byzantines built houses on top of the cavea
and converted the hill into a fortress by
circling it with walls and towers.
The Tetrastoon, originally surrounded
by four (tetra) colonnades on all sides with a
round fountain in the center, had several
functions in the Roman and Byzantine city.
First it was a meeting place for the citizens
and also by having surrounding small shops
served as a market place. Finally it gave
access
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