Aphrodisias, Turkey Week 116 June 18th 2013
                       
After a mild, but easily passed, test of our 4wd capabilities in the sand, small dunes which the wind had built and holes for the wheels that it eroded, we headed towards Aphrodisias.

At last away from major roads onto quieter, smaller, more intimate and interesting, roads.

 
Aphrodisias has a marble quarry close by.

Used locally and exported.

"Just" one of many sarcophagae in the grounds of the museum.

 
The monumental gateway to the sanctuary was built around 200 AD.

Aphrodisias had a sanctuary in 6th century BC but it was developed in 2nd and 1st centuries BC after a new town was planned. Patronage from the Emperor Augustus.

Provincial capital i 3rd century AD, fortified wall in 4th century AD.

 
The temple was converted to a church in the 6th century AD.

Much moving of columns (as one does).

This looked like the altar end.

 
So we walked to the other end.

Aphrodisias was a small cathedral town until abandoned in the 12th century.

 
The town planners had laid out a grid.

In which houses, including Tineios House, were built.

 
This is perhaps what we imagined the stadium at Olympia to be like before we saw it.

A sort of "wow" as we first stood on the rim.

270m long, 30,000 people.

Greek style athletics and Roman gladiatorial stuff.

Corporate boxes were alive and well with inscriptions on seats for groups and individuals.

 
The Hadrian Baths are at the west side of the North Agora.
 
Tiled floors.
 
A large, imposing, building.
 
The South Agora joins the North Agora.

Surrounded by colonnades.

 
Looking a bit marshy it had a pool with fountains.

We investigated the water system, coupled to the baths, for a while but couldn't make sense of it.

 
And of course a theatre.

Most of the buildings seem to have been built with the help of Zolios.

Local who was enslaved then aquired by Octavius and later freed.

Somehow was rich when he returned home.

 
Looking south beyond the theatre we were tempted to follow the columns.

But a bit of rope discouraged us.

Couldn't find the road on the 3D presentation in the museum.

 
Not sure why.

Disturbingly reminiscent of skulls in the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

 
We played with the 3D touch sensitive thingo in the museum.

Stadium at the front. South Agora pool in the centre.

 
Most of the stautary has been moved to the museum.

This is Flavius Palmatus.

Roman Senator about AD 500.

The statue was originally in front of the theatre.

I guess the clothes and hat went with the job.

 
At the rear of the museum is a hall holding reliefs from the Sebasteion.

Three storeys.

The top floor was for Emperors, Gods and Victories. Corinthian columns.

Second floor for Heroes and Gods. Ionic columns.

Ground floor for ? Doric columns.

 
The 3D impression of the Sebasteion.

Of about 200 reliefs there are 80 remaining to be displayed in the museum.

For some unexplained reason the Sebasteion is at an angle to the rest of the town. Off-grid so to speak.

 
Pammukale (Pamukkale) and Hierapolis, Turkey Week 116 June 19th 2013
 
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