Turkey: Gleaming Ancient Aphrodisias

Basing ourselves in Denizli, Aphrodisias was not an easy site to get to by public transport. We are really glad we did.

Aphrodisias was originally established by the Greeks and prospered during Roman times. I have never seen so much marble at a site. One always has the idea that the Romans used a lot of marble. One does come across them every now and then. This site has so much! Aphrodisias and its nearby marble quarry had artists producing sculptures in workshops. Some of the sculptures in museums around the world may have originated in Aphrodisias.

• There are two walls worth of marble friezes of just heads and garlands recovered during the excavation of the South Agora. Now we know what inspired one of the Art Nouveau school's classic designs.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The Sebasteion (1st and 2nd below), really a sort of temple to Augustus, is a grand monument. Since it collapsed in an earthquake, many of the bas relief panels were preserved and now displayed in the site museum (3rd to 7th below). It's an amazing sight!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The large stadium was originally constructed by the Greeks for athletic games. However the one end was later modified by the Romans to hold gladiator fights - such decline! What a relief to know that we are not the only degenerative ones, from reading books to watching television, from family/friends gatherings to facebook.
  
  

Of course there is a Roman Theatre.




Tetrapylon.


South Agora and Pool


The Temple of Aphrodite, once the focal point of the town, was altered to be a Christian Basilica. What one sees now are the ruins of the basilica.


Notes to fellow travellers: based in Denizli, Aphrodisias was not an easy trip by public transport, doable nevertheless. We were inspired by this and this postings. The minibus from Denizli station to Nazilli is every 30 minutes. Ee got off the Nazilli van at the Kuyucak crossroad, and while we were calmly waiting for the bus to Karacasu, a really dilapidated car stopped to give us a lift, though the driver spoke zero English and we had as much Turkish. He took us all the way to the Aphrodisias ticket office. Gas money was offered and accepted. On the way back we caught the 3:30pm minibus from the mainroad as advised by the ticket office, though it looked like the minibus went all the way to the parking lot. The Karacasu-Nazilli minibus left at 4pm. We waited quite a while at the Kuyucak crossroads, as a number of the passing buses were full. Using Google Translate, we ended up making new friends at the bus stop.