Amphitheater in Stratonikeia, photo by Mike Dunphy
One of the most thrilling things about traveling through Turkey is the knowledge that beneath your feet thousands of years of civilization lie waiting to be unearthed. Indeed, just about any time someone plunges a shovel into the ground, relics of the Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans turn up in the soil.
Happily, it’s a boon for the tourist industry, which welcomes a steady stream to the famous ancient cities of Ephesus, Pergamon, Aphrodisias, Assos, Troy and Hierapolis, among many others. Sixty miles east of Bodrum, in the upper Marsyas Valley, excavations are underway on yet another ancient city, Stratonikeia, exposing the marble to the sun after centuries under the earth.
Called the “City of Eternal Love and Gladiators,” Stratonikeia was founded in the third century B.C., after the stepson of King Seleucus, Antiochus, fell hopelessly in love with Princess Stratonice, daughter of king of Macedonia, who was married to his father. According to Plutarch, Seleucus was so despondent at the state of his son, who was nearly dead from depression, that he abdicated the throne, declared Antiochus king, and wed him to Stratonice. In her honor, Antiochus founded Stratonikeia.
After the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century, the city was reduced to a small town Eskihisar, with inhabitants building on the ruins, often appropriating the same building blocks, until an earthquake in 1957 damaged the town so much, that most inhabitants were relocated. After that, the coal companies got a hold of area and strip-mined much of the surrounding hillsides, destroying significant portions of Stratonikeia. Once the coal was exhausted, the archeologists were finally able to move in.
As with a lot of archaeology in Turkey, the site is a bit of a jumble, with elements of the Ottoman, Roman, and Byzantine periods mixed all together. Eskihisar, the later Ottoman settlement which anchors the western end of the excavations, and is where tours currently begin (although plans are underway for a grander entrance on the north side). The main attraction of this area is the Şaban Ağa Mosque. Although little more than 125 years old, it charms immensely with its graceful wood portico and conical balcony.
Turning east, a long line of houses and buildings in various states of collapse line Ağa Sokakları, the main boulevard of Eskihisar. A few wooden sharia-style Ottoman doors still hang from the hinges, with one half for men, the other for women, and different doorbells indicating the sex of the guest. However, towards the end of the street, Greek, Roman and Byzantine history becomes more apparent and eventually full-blown, especially when turning south along a pitted, poppy-dappled excavation area, where ancient Roman shops abut the road.
At the end of the road lies one of Stratonikeia most impressive structures — a 2,400-year old Greco-Roman theater that once held up to 15,000 people cut into a natural hillside. It’s also where the most publicized finds were uncovered — fifteen marble blocks engraved with 2,300-year-old reliefs of mythological gods.
Stratonikeia continues to impress heading north past the odeion, bouleuterion to the broad colonnaded street that once served as a gate way into the city. The former commercial area shows clearly remains of shops, mosaics, inscriptions, a drainage system and even the impressions of cartwheel tracks in the stone flooring. At the end, a nearly complete 46-foot high and 140-foot wide arch bends over an elegant fountain pool still scarred with rope imprints from users.
It’s through the north gate also that a Stratonikeia earns the “gladiator” portion of its moniker, at several well-preserved gladiator graves inscribed with much about the warriors, including the number of victories and testimonies of fortitude. Indeed, the importance of athletics in the city is most evident in the remains of the largest gymnasium in antiquity, just west of the north gate.
The best reason to visit Stratonikia is not the refreshing lack of tourists (although steadily increasing) but the thrill of watching the city being uncovered before your eyes, as teams of diggers pick away in trenches looking for the next great treasure.
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