In the middle and southern section of the Turkish Aegean region. The third river irrigates the western part of the Biga peninsula in northwestern Anatolia but all three rivers are characterized by a favorable climate, dense population and intense agricultural exploitation (cotton) in an extensive and well-irrigated area. They were of particular importance for many of the ancient towns.
The Küçük Menderes of today is the ancient Kaystros. The source of this 175km/108mile long river is to be found north of Kiraz on the Bozdagi (2,159m/7,080ft) about 80km/50mi east of Izmir.
It winds its way down to the 25km/16mile wide and 80km/50mile long Küçük Menderes depression disgorging into the silted, marshy delta of the Gulf of Kusadasi not far from the ancient town of Ephesus. The decline of Ephesus as a port was due largely to the river mouth which had become choked with sand.
Büyük Menderes
The Büyük Menderes is the ancient Maiandros (Maeander). This river over 500km/310mi in length flows from a powerful karst spring near Dinar and another source southwest of Afyon ("Sag Menderes", Right Maeander). The two streams converge south of Çivril, hurry through the mountain region of Çal and then follow a course of tiny loops (hence the term "meander") from Sarayköy through the 200km/120mile long and up to 20km/12mile wide Great Maeander valley, where the section to the east of Denizli is known as the Çürüksu Ovasi. A very marshy and rapidly growing delta south of Kusadasi marks the spot where the river flows into the Gulf of Miletus.
The river's sedimentation has made the ancient Greek ports of Miletus, Priene and Herakleia into inland towns and cut off a part of the old bay to form Bafa Gölü (Herakleia Lake).
Sarimsakli
The Sarimsakli of today was also officially known as the Küçük Menderes until 1987 (in antiquity as the Skamander). It rises on the Biga peninsula some 80km/50mi southeast of Çanakkale on the Öldüren Dagi in the Ida Mountains (Kaz Dagi 1,774m/5,810ft) and flows on through the fertile but in places marshy lowlands of Ezine/Bayramiç and Truva (plain and battlefield of Troy). These coastal towns also fell victim to sedimentation. The Sarimsakli flows into the Aegean by the southwest entrance to Dardanelles near Kumkale.
The remains of ancient Magnesia lie on the northern edge of the wide alluvial plain of the Maeander (Büyük Menderes) 25km/15mi inland from Kusadasi as the crow flies. The site can be reached from the main Izmir to Milas road by bearing right at a fork just beyond Ortaklar, 95km/60mi southeast of Izmir. The ancient city lies only a short distance further along this road. Although it is not signposted, the site can easily be recognized by the extensive remains of walls on either side of the road.
History
The site was occupied by the Magnetes from very early times. They are a people whose origins and character were the subject of many later legends. About 650 B.C. a town which had been established further downstream at the confluence of the Lethaios and the Maeander by settlers from Magnesia in Thessaly was destroyed by the Cimmerians. The town was later rebuilt by themiians and then in 530 B.C. captured by the Persians. About 400 B.C. the Spartan general Thibron compelled the Magnesians to leave their town, which was unfortified and subject to flooding, and to move upstream to the present site at the foot of Mount Thorax. It only began to prosper under the Seleukids. From the time of Sulla (84 B.C.) the town was independent but an ally of Rome. The excavations carried out by Texier in 1842-43 and Humann in 1891-93 have since been overlaid with soil deposited during the winter floods and overgrown by vegetation so that more recent Turkish researchers have had difficulty tracing the layout of the old town. Some of the finds from the 19th century excavations are to be seen in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
Excavations
The first remains to be seen, the foundations of a Roman barracks, lie to the east on the other side of the road and railroad line. The remains of a seventh century Byzantine wall which re-used earlier masonry can be seen on both sides of the road.
Further on to the west lie the remains of the once-celebrated Temple of Artemis Leukophryene, an Ionic temple (a pseudo- dipteros with a double-width gallery) built by Hermogenes of Alabanda at the end of the third century B.C.. One of the largest examples in Asia Minor, it had an Amazon frieze, regarded as one of the most extensive relief compositions of ancient times. Parts of the frieze are to be found in the Paris Louvre, Berlin and Istanbul. To the west of the temple lies the site of the Ionic propylon which linked the sacred precinct with the agora. To the south is a ruined Byzantine church. Other sights include the remains of the Roman gymnasium, the stadium, town walls and the necropoles. The theater which was excavated by a German archeologist had become overgrown but has now been cleared and restored.
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