The ancient city of Tralles (known as Tiral today) may be seen atop a hill from the Aydın-Denizli highway. It is located in the district of Topyatagi, a kilometer north of Aydin city.
As related by the ancient geographer Strabo of Amaseia, Tralles was founded by Argive and Thracian tribes. Although it is an extremely ancient settlement, very little proper archaeological research or excavation has been conducted concerning Tralles and for that reason, our knowledge of the city is quite limited. The first historical mention of the city is a reference made to it during the war of independence undertaken in the 5th century B.C. against the Persians by the Spartan general, Thibron. In 334 B.C. Alexander the Great delivered the city from Persian rule. Tralles changed hands frequently among the Hellenistic kingdoms: the Seleucidswere in control of it in 313 B.C. and after the Magnesian wars, it passed to the Kingdom of Pergamon in 260 B.C.
In 129 B.C., Tralles became part of Roman province of Asia. When King Mithridates Eupator of Pontus rebelled against the Romans, the city remained under Pontine rule for four years beginning in 88 B.C. In 84 B.C. Tralles was returned to Rome. In 26 B.C. it suffered serious damage in an earthquake and as it was rebuilt with the assistance of Emperor Augustus, the city was renamed Caesarea.
Under Byzantine rule, Tralles was an episcopal see. The Turks took control of it in the 12th century.
Strabo tells us that the city was a rich and prosperous place in Roman times. Today however very little remains standing of the city that once stood on a plateau surrounded by a protecting wall. The structure known locally as Og Goz (”Three Arches”) is actually three vaults — all that remains of the gymnasium. The remains of the cavea of the ancient theater lie to the north. Because a large part of the ancient city today lies within a military zone, archaeological excavations and research cannot be carried out.
On display at the Aydin Museum are a variety of archaeologica works from the ancient city of Tralles.
One of the two architects responsible for the buildings of Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) in istanbul was Anthemius of Tralles. (The other was Isador of Miletos.)
The “Young Athlete” in the istanbul Archaeological Museum and the “Farneese Bull”, both masterpieces of late Hellenistic sculpture are two world-famous works by sculptors from Tralles.

Aydin is the chief county and administrative center of the fourteen counties of the province. Famous as a region of succulent figs and swashbuckling heroes, Aydin is situated in the middle of the Menderes basin where the southern slopes of the Aydin mountains meet the plain.
Because Aydin is centrally located in geographical terms and also because it is situated on both highway and railway routes over which the economic resources of the region are conveyed to the port of Izmir, the city has become an important population center.
While Aydin ranks fourth in terms of Turkey’s agricultural output the industrially advanced provinces surrounding it (izmir being foremost among them), have had a restrictive effect on Aydin’s industrial development.
With the rise of tourism in the Aegean coastal areas of the counties of Kusadasi and Soke not many years ago, investment activity shifted from the provincial center down to the sea. Blessed as it is with numerous ancient sites and a rich folklore set amidst the seven shades of green, such activities as the “Green Journey” and “Highland Tourism” begun recently in the ancient city of Aphrodesias and its vicinity in Karacasu, Aydin’s easternmost county, have the potential of spreading to every part of the province.
Though we lack definite information about its original founding, the city known as Tralles in ancient times was a prosperous and well-fortified settlement. The city was taken by Mentese Bey from the Byzantines around the end of the 13th century and it later came under the rule of the Aydinogullan principality. After 1308, the town was mown as Aydin Guzelhisar (”Beautiful Castle of Aydin”) and was ruled as = principality for about a century. In the early 15th century it came under Oticman rule and remained so as a province of the empire for five centuries.
With the Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I, Aydin was occupied twice by the Greek army in 1919 and suffered considerable destruction by fire. Under the republic, the city was rebuilt in keeping with modern concepts of urban planning and as a result, the provincial capital is today a contemporary western Anatolian city with modern buildings and boulevards.
In addition to the ruins of ancient Tralles, Aydin also contains numerous examples of Turkish architecture — principally djamis (mosques), but also hammams (public baths), khans (roadside inns), medresses (theological academies), and masjids (small mosques). Aydin also possesses a fine museum, beautiful scenery, and opportunities for shopping and observing local ways of life and folklore.

From Tralles to Aydın Güzelhisar: the Menderes valleys become the home of the Oghuz and Turkomans
According to the medieval Byzantine historian Georgios Pachymeres (1242-1310): “The Turks invaded territories that nobody defended. Thus the valley of the Maeander was abandoned not just by brave fighters taking up positions in remote places but also by monks as well.”
At the beginning of the 14th century, when the Germianids (Germiyanogulları) were beginning to put pressure on the borders of Byzantium and capturing territory with their raids to the west, the principality of Menteshe (Mentese) had already become entrenched in what was once Caria and the valley of the Maeander. Before the Germianids turned their attentions towards Karesi, Saruhan, and the Aydın region, Aydın (Tralles) and Sultanhisar (Nysa) had already been besieged and taken (1280-1282) by Emir MenteÅŸe. After Emir Mentese’s death, his son-in-law Sasa Bey took the cities of Magnesia, Priene, and Ayasulug, extending his authority to the entire region. However Sasa Bey fell into a dispute with Mubarizuddin Ghazi Meh-med Bey, a member of the Aydınogulları (”sons of Aydın”) clan. Mehmed defeated Sasa and as a result gained control of the Aydın region. He selected Pyrgion (now Birgi) as his seat of government and having adopted the name Ulu Bey, he established the Aydınoglu principality in 1308. It was during this period that the name of the city of Tralles was changed to Aydın Guzelhisar. The three coastal principalities owed nominal allegiance to the Sultan of Rum and to the llkhanids. According to the Eflaki TeskeresHa 14th century biographical memoir) Arif Qelebi, the grandson of the Turkish poet and philosopher Mevlana, visited Mehmed Bey in Birgi. Ibn Battuta mentions doing the same thing in his Travels in Asia and Africa

Byzantines and Seljuks struggle for the Aegean

In 1071, the Seljuk sultan Alparslan defeated the Byzantine army on the plain of Malazgirt (or Manzikirt as it is known in Western sources) in eastern Anatolia about 40 kilometers northwest of Lake Van and captured the Byzantine emperor, Romanus IV Diogenes. Sparing the emperor’s life, Alparslan concluded a treaty with him but Michael Dukas, the newly-declared emperor in Constantinople, refused to recognize the treaty and the upshot was that numerous Turkish tribes and raiders flooded into the Anatolian heartland spreading rapidly from east to west. Caka, a Turkish bey (prince), captured Smyrna (Izmir) and established his short-lived Aegean maritime empire in the last quarter of the 11th century. After his death however and with the appearance of the armies of the First Crusade in Anatolia towards the end of the 11th century, izmir returned to Byzantine control. This then was the beginning of the Byzantine-Turkish struggle for control of the Menderes basin, a struggle that was to continue for nearly two centuries.
In 1148, the armies of the Second Crusade under the command of King Louis VII of France advanced up the Maeander river but no sooner had they passed Laodicea (Denizli) than they were defeated by the forces of Sultan Mesud of te Anatolian Seljuks in the vicinity of Honaz. In 1176 Sultan Kilicarslan II overcame Byzantine forces and succeeded in penetrating the Maeander valley. But while he managed to take the cities of Tralles and Antiocheia as well as a number of castles, the Byzantine emperor, Manual I Comnenus, recovered them. In 1187 Kiligarslan II again staged a number of raids into the plain of the Lesser Maeander (Cilbianus) with the result that the Byzantine emperor Isaac Angelos was forced to pay an annual tribute.
Around the end of 12th century, Sultan Giyaseddin Keyhiisrev I again succeeded in taking a number of cities in the valley but owing to a struggle over possession of the throne, the Seljuks were unable to maintain their hold upon them. In 1243, the Anatolian Seljuks (the Seljuks of Rum, as they are called in Western sources), whose capital was Konya (ancient Iconium) were defeated by the llkhanid Mongols at Kosedag and became subject to them. As a result they lost whatever political influence they may still have had and the military expeditions that they had once staged in the Aegean littoral were now replaced with the migrations and conquests of Turkoman tribes. As a result of the weakening of imperial Seljuk control in the 13th century, three independent Turkish principaties appeared on the western coast of Anatolia.

The Byzantine period: the capital of the world moves from Rome to Constantinople

With the division of the Roman Empire into two in 395, the eastern half, which was to become the Byzantine Empire, assumed control of all of Anatolia. The great empire that the armies of Rome had forged by the force of their swords was turned over to the Byzantines together with all its institutions (except of course for the pagan religion). Constantinople (istanbul) became the new capital of the world.
The Byzantine Empire adopted Christianity as a state religion and thus rejected the pagan culture and art of classical Rome. This was and important development and led to radical changes not only in social attitudes and living but also in architecture as well. While the public-oriented structures of the ancient cities were preserved, the white marble temples were converted to churches, sometimes with the addition of brick-walled annexes. As a consequence of Iconoclasm (a movement that opposed the veneration of religious images), the making of statues was prohibited and existing ones were destroyed.
Turkish migration into Anatolia began to intensify beginning in the 10th century. Their steady advance pushed Byzantine power back from east to west By the 13th century, all of Anatolia but for the Aegean littoral was in Turkish hands.

Fethiye – Ölüdeniz

You can see Fethiye, Ölüdeniz, MuÄŸla, Saklıkent photos in here…

The Roman Empire: the last nation of the ancient world to inherit the millennium-old accumulation of Aegean culture and civilization

To be sure, the bequest of Attalos III of Pergamon was merely the pretext by which the Romans swallowed up Asia Minor. Rome was well versed in the art of “divide and conquer”. As early as 189 B.C., the Roman consul Manlius Vulso, as the protector of King Eumenes II of Pergamon was dispatched with his brother on a campaign against Galatia. The consul advanced through the Menderes and Cjne valleys, extending as far as Karacasu and the plateaus of Arpaz, Alabanda, and Kanncah. This territory, under the nominal hegemony of the Seleucid kingdom, he presented to Pergamon as if it were his own.

Rome eventually turned the Pergamene kings into a clients and following the elimination of the last stumbling-block — King Aristonicus — in 129 B.C., Consul Marcus Aquilius was sent to take delivery of the kingdom of Pergamon.
The greatest resistance to Roman expansion in Anatolia came from King Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus. During his wars with Rome, which lasted from 84 to 63 B.C. and were the occasion of many a bloody battle, this powerful king, who ruled much of Anatolia, invaded Greece and even dared to march against Rome. He managed to take Ionia and the city of Tralles and its surroundings. Despite this however, his success was short-lived.
It was Pompey and Julius Caesar who finally secured Roman hegemony in Anatolia. By 27 B.C., the wars were over and under the Roman Empire, such emperors as Augustus, Trajan, and Hadrian built up Asia Minor and made it prosperous. Caria, Ionia, and the Maeander valley all regained their former glory. The Romans were willing to adopt beneficial aspects of local cultures and through their exploitation of local resources and their development of roads and trade, all the ancient cities in the region — foremost among them being Ephesos, Miletos, and Aphrodesias — flourished and grew and were adorned with monumental structures.

Under the Seleucid and Pergamene kingdoms

Immediately upon the death of Alexander, his quondam empire was broken up into individual kingdoms by his successors. One of these was the kingdom of Seleucus. Tralles and its vicinity became an important part of this kingdom in western Anatolia and, as its administrative center, the city began to be called Seleucei. In order to ensure the security of trade routes, King Antiochos I established the city of Antiochia, named after himself, at the eastern extremity of the Maeander valley.
As one consequence of the attempts of the Romans to spread their influence into Anatolia, the Seleucids were expelled from the Maeander valley under the treaty of Apamea in 188 B.C. and the region came under the control of the Kingdom of Pergamon, Rome’s ally.
Among the Hellenistic kingdoms in Anatolia, Pergamon was the most advanced in science, art, and civil engineering. After the death of KingEumenes II, he was succeeded by Attalos Ml who, though not entirely of sound mind, bequeathed his kingdom to Rome in his will after his death in 133 B.C. Aristonicus, the son of Eumenes II, rejected the validity of the bequest and assumed the throne himself. Despite his resistance to Rome however, he was taken prisoner three years later and put to death. In 129 B.C., the Pergamene kingdom — and with it, its territory in the Maeander valley — became the Roman province of Asia.
The kings of Pergamon were avid builders of public works and thus Tralles (Aydin) and its vicinity were developed substantially. Such famous works as the temple to Apollo in Didyma (Didim), the temple to Athena in Priene, and the temple to were all built during this period.

Alexander the Great: Macedonia brings an end to Persian domination of Ionia

Angered by the attempts of the cities of mainland Greece to provide the Ionian city-states in western Aantolia with material and moral support, the Persian kings Darius I and Xerxes both organized punitive campaigns against Athens and Sparta, one consequence of which was Xerxes’s destruction of Athens in 480 B.C. After a lengthy struggle Persian aggression was successfully stymied. But now the Greek city-states, polarized around the competing cities of Athens and Sparta, engaged in a seriees of bloody fratricidal wars that left them politically and economically exhausted and easy prey for a new aggressor from the north: Macedonia.
The process of uniting Greece begun by Philip II of Macedonia was continued by his son, the twenty year-old Alexander whose main goal was to put a final end to Persian rule of the region. In 334 B.C. he landed in Anatolia with a small force of well-trained men near the site of ancient Troy and defeated the Persian satraps at the Granicus (Kocabas. Qayi). Unable to withstand Alexander’s a rapid and determined campaign, the Persians suffered defeat after defeat and in less than five years, the Macedonians reached their capital city of Persepolis, which Alexander burned and destroyed in retaliation for the destruction of Athens a century and a half earlier. Conquering the entire Persian Empire — the greatest of its day — the young Macedonian king himself become emperor worthy of the title “Alexander the Great”.
In western Anatolia, the Persian-enthralled cities of Tralles, Magnesia, and Nysa surrendered without resistance to Alexander. The Persian garrison and fleet at Miletos were much stronger however and so opposed his advances. During the siege of this city — which controlled entrance to the Maeander valley, Alexander established his headquarters at Priene where the people showed him much affection. In gratitude, the young king donated money for the rebuilding of the city of Priene. Today, remains known as the “House of Alexander” and the “Temple of Alexander” are to be found in Priene.
The city of Alinda, to which King Mausolos (the Persian satrap of Caria) had exiled his sister Ada also opened its doors to Alexander and as a reward, Alexander declared Ada queen of Caria. Tralles, owing to its central location during the Carian and Lycian campaigns, served as a base for Alexander’s forces.
Alexander however died in 323 B.C., his plans to establish a single worldwide state unrealized. His hastily put-together empire fell apart just as rapidly upon his untimely death.

The Persian Empire: Hordes of Asians descend upon the warm valleys of the Aegean from the Iranian highlands

Although Lydia’s hegemony extended as far east as the Halys river (Kizilirmak), prideful King Croesus was unable to resist the expansionism or the mercenary armies of the Persians who were becoming ever more powerful in the Iranian plateau. Surging down to the warm and fertile Aegean coast from their high and cold plateau, the Persians wiped out the golden kingdom of King Croesus of Lydia.
Thus the Ionian found themselves confronted byatotaly unexpected and enormous threat and while they sought to resist, King Cyrus’s general, Mazares, invaded the valley of the Maeander and subjugated the cities of Priene, Magnesia, Tralles, and Nysa.
The Ionian Revolt instigated by the Milesians in 500 B.C. proved to be quite bloody. The Persians were merciless in suppressing the rebellion. Miletos was razed and its inhabitants were either deported to Mesopotamia or else enslaved. Their Apollo temple was burned and its sacred objects and treasures were carried off to Persia. It was now the turn of the Persians to enjoy the abundance of western Anatolia. Over the famous “Royal Road”, which began in Sardis and extended as far as Susa in Persia, an enormous share of the resources of Anatolia and of the Aegean, Black Sea, and Mediterranean regions was carried back to the imperial palaces in Persepolis.
Persian hegemony over the Maeander river basin lasted about 213 years. The Persians divided Anatolia into administrative regions (called satrapies). They ensured the establishment of political order and ruled their empire through governors (satraps) who were vested with royal powers.