Miletus
Miletus, near the coast of western Turkey, was one of the most important ancient cities in the Greek world, but eventually lost its importance due to the silting up of its harbours.
Great Theater of Miletus rises to greet its visitors as you approach the city's southern boundary and turn left, riding through swampy cotton fields to reach the site. It's the most significant reminder of a once grand city, which was an important commercial and governmental centre from about 700 BC to 700 AD. After that time the Miletus harbour filled vvith silt, and Miletus' commercial strength weakened. The 15,000 seat theater was originally a Hellenistic building, but the Romans reconstructed it extensively during the 1st century.
Climbing to the top of the theater where the ramparts of a later Byzantine castle provide a viewing platform for several groups of ruins scattered around. Looking left and you'll see what remains of the harbour, called Lion Bay for the stone statues of lions which guarded it. Looking right and you'll see the stadium; the northern, vvestern and southern agoras; the baths of Faustina, constructed on the order of Emperor Marcus Aurelius' wife; and a bouleuterion between the northern and southern agoras. Some part of Miletus is underwater for much of the year and although that makes it hard to walk around, it also makes it even more picturesque. Note that the northern gateway to the southern agora is now one of the prized exhibits in Berlin's famous Pergamum Museum.
To the south of the main ruins of Miletus is the İlyas Bey Mosque (1404), dating from a period after the Seljuks but before the Ottomans when this region was ruled by the Turkish emirs of Menteşe. The doorway and mihrab are well worth noticing.
Miletus was first occupied in 1400 BC by Minoans from Crete, then Mycenaeans from the Peloponnese, then by refugees from Greece during the Dorian invasion. Miletus prospered and grew wealthy from colonies on the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and even in Egypt. Miletus became the most important of the 12 cities of Ionia, and was one of the first cities in the ancient world to mint coins. It was mentioned by Homer in The Iliad.
Miletus was destroyed (along with Didyma) by the Persians in 499 BC, and Ephesus surpassed Miletus as the the most important city in the region. But Miletus was rebuilt, and its streets were laid out according to the plan of Miletus native Hippodamus, inventor of the "Hippodamian grid." His plan was first applied in Piraeus and Rhodes, and later in the northern part of his Miletus.
Other famous citizens of Miletus were Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, all philosophers of nature and the universe; the historian and geographer Hekataios, who first used the word "history" in its modern sense; and Isidorus, one of the designers of the Hagia Sophia.
Around 499 BC the Milesians led the Ionian revolt that sparked the Greco-Persian Wars; Miletus was stormed and sacked by the Persians in 494. After the Greeks defeated the Persians in 479, Miletus joined the Athenian-dominated Delian League, but in 412 BC Miletus sided with Sparta against Athens.
Miletus was weakened by internal divisions when Alexander the Great seized it in a great battle (334 BC), ushering in a new era of trade and prosperity. After Alexander's death, Miletus was ruled by his general Lysimachus, who made generous donations to the city.
The Romans annexed the area in 133 BC and added several monumental structures to Miletus. The Emperor Trajan (2nd century AD) built the Sacred Way from Miletus to Didyma. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, the Romans intervened to guarantee freedom of religion to Jews in Miletus; an inscription that seems to relate to this has been found in the theater.
In Hellenistic and Roman times, the people of Miletus made an annual pilgrimage along the Sacred Way that led from Miletus to the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, a distance of about 25 km.
Miletus had a Christian bishop by the time of Decius, when St. Thyrsus and his companions were martyred at Miletus. Eusebius, Bishop of Miletus, attended the Council of Nicea in 325.
After the 3rd century, Miletus began to decline. By the 6th century, the silting of the Meander River had destroyed the city's harbors and attracted malaria. By the Ottoman period, the once proud city was just a small village. The site was finally abandoned in the 17th century.
In 1899, excavations began by the Berlin Museum. Today, some artifacts, including the massive Market Gate, can be seen in the Pergamum Museum in Berlin.