Aphrodisias - You
could easily spend a couple hours admiring the archaeological ruins at this
ancient site located in the Denizli province in western Turkey.
In
this post, I’m only going to focus on the temple. We took 100 photos at this
site alone, so I have many I’d like to share with you in other posts.
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| Jason stood by the columns so we'd have a reference for the columns' impressive height. |
Construction of the Temple of Aphrodite began in the late first
century B.C. Zoilos, a leading (rich) citizen who also paid for the
construction of the agora and theater, sponsored the initial construction. In
the 2nd century A.D., the temple was enclosed in an elaborate colonnaded
courtyard.
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| I really like this photo. The marble on these 2 columns was quite unique compared to the rest used on the site. |
One of Aphrodisias’s most important
monuments, the temple (tapınak) provided an impressive home for the cult
of their divine ancestress, Aphrodite. We all know Aphrodite as the
Greek goddess of love as well as beauty, fertility, sea and sexuality. One can
only imagine what this amazing marble temple looked like in its glory days when
people came to worship this goddess.
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| These marble columns were huge! Can you imagine how many people were needed to construct this temple back in the day? |
Around
500 A.D., the temple was converted for use as the city’s cathedral - much
larger than the pagan temple it replaced. The conversion was an enormous
undertaking, in which the columns of the front and back of the temple were
moved from their original positions and used to extend the side colonnades, creating
two long rows of 19 columns each. One has to assume these are some of the
columns that are still standing today. (Source: NYU projects.)
Possibly
during the Seljuk raids of the late 12th century A.D., the church was damaged
or destroyed, and fell out of use. The city is thought to have been ultimately
abandoned by the 13th century.
Aphrodisias
Admission: 8 TL
Location:
38 km northwest of Tavas. About 1 ½ hours away from Pamukkale.
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| Odd prehistoric-looking flower blooming next to one of the fallen columns in the temple. |
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3 comments:
Very cool! I love seeing the rich history of this country. I actually took a picture of this exact flower in Laodocia! Keep posting, I want to see more!
Great pictures. Very interesting to see the transformation to Christianity. The Bible speaks of the people rioting in Ephesus when they felt that Paul was threatening Artemis. It makes one wonder how peaceful the transition was in other temples like this one over the course of a few hundred years?
Interesting....I always would like to know more about the places we visit. Unfortunately, the history from back then wasn't so well documented. I would like to know how people really lived in these cities and their stories.
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