Ancient Miletus

Having visited the Apollo Temple at ancient Didyma, we drove half an hour north to get to the site of ancient Miletus. From where we parked the car, near the ticket office, the site was dominated by the old theatre. The original Helenistic theatre with 5300 seats was replaced in the Roman era (2AD) with the huge theatre we see today. Reaching up 40 metres high, this theatre could seat 15,000 people.

The size was difficult to judge until we got closer. The photo (right) with Nicky standing in the entrance tunnel gives an idea of scale.

We, of course, climbed to the top to get a proper view.

The view down into the theatre was obviously impressive but behind us there were also the ruins of a Byzantine castle. It was a really strange mix of eras and architecture and, given that a castle was built there later, it is amazing that the theatre has survived as it has.

Walking along the ruined walls of the castle we looked out across the floodplain of the river Meander trying to imagine the city here on the edge of the sea, as it used to be. We were also able to look down onto the remains of the city, some of which looked very flooded. It looked a little disappointing, but that turned out to be a very false judgement.

We’d practically tripped over a tortoise as we walked up to the theatre and thought that was rare but we saw more creeping through the undergrowth as we moved down to the flooded ruins. As we got closer, the noise from some sort of bird or animal got louder and louder and we wondered what it was.

The answer was frogs; hundreds of them. The flooded areas turned out to be filled with tadpoles in all stages of development and the frogs were clearly singing their way noisily to try to create the next generation. In the pools were also turtles; it was like a wildlife safari – and that was before we got to the ruins.

Initially on dry ground we were able to clamber amongst the ruins but the ground started to become positively soggy and we thought our explorations would end prematurely.

However, there were so many low ruined walls above the water level that we had a network of paths albeit with the odd rather large step across gaps. Using these ‘paths’ but also having to retrace our steps every now and then, we made our way across the whole site.

Temple of Seraphis

Ilyas Bey Camii mosque

The 3^rd century AD Temple of Seraphis was interesting. Initially we thought that it had collapased but on closer inspection you could see steps going down into the 3 naves but they were under the water. We didn’t fancy diving archaeology so gave that bit of the tour a miss.

The nearby Ilyas Bey Camii mosque built in 1404 was also very picturesque. The minaret collapsed in the 1958 earthquake and we could see the ‘stump’ of it just to the right of the main building. We did walk over to see if we could get in because apparently the dome and delicate carved stone filigree are quite special. Sadly the mosque and an adjoining bath house and medrese seemed to be closed up, perhaps still being restored.

Baths of Faustina

The Baths of Faustina, built in 150AD house, were on a grand scale, as are the ruins. The cold bath (pictured above bottom right and artists impression left) have copies of the carved stone river god Maeander and Lion fountains which filled the pool in place (the originals are in the nearby museum, which we did not visit). It was very easy to imagine the room in its former glory. The rest of the ruins of the bath complex are similarly impressive and are well worth wandering around.

With the mixture of wildlife, half submerged ruins, and the enourmous theatre, ancient Miletus had proved to be a really memourable site to visit. With 2 of our 4 tourist spots ‘done’ we set off again driving north to get to our next stop, the ancient city of Priene.

Didim Marina, Turkey