Euromos: Restoration of the Temple of Zeus

Submitted by Iza on Mon, 06/20/2022 - 19:14

Text and photos by our correspondent from Didyma, Glenn Maffia.

For a number of months I have been reading about the ongoing restoration of the Temple of Zeus Lepsynos located within the antique city of Euromos, approximately halfway between Didim and Bodrum on Türkiye's south-western Aegean shore. It hasn’t made for pleasurable reading from my point of view, I can assure you.

May 2022 in Turkish archaeology

Submitted by Iza on Wed, 06/01/2022 - 11:23

May 2022 saw the discovery of a sarcophagus carrying the title of "Emperor’s protector" in the province of Kocaeli in western Turkey. Meanwhile, in the eastern part of the country, the water level of Lake Van fell, revealing a one-kilometer Urartian road connecting Çarpanak Island to the shore. Finally, archaeologists found an 1800-year-old sewer system during excavations in the ancient city of Mastaura, in the Nazilli district of Aydın province.

April 2022 in Turkish archaeology

Submitted by Iza on Sun, 05/01/2022 - 09:51

Possibly the most thrilling archaeological news from the area of Turkey in April 2022 was the discovery of a Hellenistic cremation tomb in Istanbul’s Haydarpaşa excavations. Moreover, the remains of an 8500-year-old wooden ladder were found in Çatalhöyük, one of the best-preserved Neolithic settlements in the world. Finally, the excavations revealed a huge underground city in southeastern Mardin province’s Midyat district.

Haydarpaşa - historical railway station in Istanbul

Nagidos

Submitted by Iza on Tue, 04/19/2022 - 16:07

The scant ruins of the ancient Greek city of Nagidos are situated on a hill above the town of Bozyazı, on the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia. They were excavated by a team of archaeologists from Mersin University who discovered the traces of settlement reaching back to the Hellenistic times, i.e. the 4th century BCE. At that period, when Nagidos was an outpost of Samos and Rhodes, as a small harbour founded to trade goods from Cyprus and Egypt.

Nagidos - view from the acropolis towards the island of Nagidoussa

Ambitions to be met

Submitted by Iza on Wed, 04/06/2022 - 17:03

Text by our correspondent from Didyma, Glenn Maffia.

My previous two articles have afforded me to espouse upon the relatively minor, inexpensive, tweaks to the appearance around the Temple of Apollo which shall enable visitors to better appreciate the elegant antique architecture that stands as a symbol to this growing vacation resort. Namely, clean the graffiti, smarten the surrounding abodes and secure the perimeter walls, whilst also officially opening the Sacred Road to the public.