Tralles

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figs were every bit as renowned then as they are today. The town was also famous for its school of philosophy. Having fallen to the Romans in 133 B.C., in 26 B.C. Tralles was devastated by an earthquake, being rebuilt largely through the beneficence of Augustus. The appreciative citizens renamed the city Caesarea, a name it retained until the late first century. In the 14th century Güzelhisar (as it was then known) gave way to Aydin, newly established seat of the Aydin Ogullari built on the plain immediately below. Tralles's ancient buildings were pillaged for their stone.

The earliest excavations, undertaken in about 1888, bore little fruit, but in 1902/03 archeologists from the Ottoman Museum in Istanbul uncovered the remains of baths and a stoá. The major find was a marble statue of a youth wearing a mantle (the Ephebe of Thalles, now in the Archeological Museum in Istanbul).

Visiting the ruins

Stripped of nearly all its stone (some of it still found in buildings in the old part of Aydin) the remains of the huge stadium are not particularly impressive. Beyond the stadium, to the north, lie the ruins of the theater - substantial walls of masonry with a mortar and rubble core - built up against the side of the acropolis. Note especially the unusual tunnel under the orchestra. At one time the 280m/920ft-high acropolis was supplied with water by means of a high-pressure conduit. Near the stadium are two ruined Early Byzantine churches with interesting ground plans.

A little to the right of the agora are three ruined arches which the Turks used to call "Üç Göz" (Three Eyes). These are now virtually the only remains of a large Late Roman gymnasium which had brick walls faced with marble.

The city walls, enclosing an oval area 1,800m/1,970yds long and 1,000m/1,094yds wide, have been reduced to just a few fragmentary remnants. On its east side Tralles was protected by the Tabakhne Çayi.