Countryside Trip in Aphrodisias, Turkey
This is one of the historic remains we visited in Turkey. We had a tour in this place. While our tour guide was explaining its history, I was busy going around to take photos of this place. Aphrodisias was a small city in Caria, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. Its site is located near the modern village of Geyre, Turkey, about 230 km from İzmir.
The city was built near a marble quarry that was extensively exploited in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and sculpture in marble from Aphrodisias became famous in the Roman world. Many examples of statuary have been unearthed in Aphrodisias, and some representations of the Aphrodite of Aphrodisias also survive from other parts of the Roman world, as far afield as Pax Julia in Lusitania.
The double tetrapylon, or monumental gate..taken during our visit last September 2011.Tetrapylon
One of the most attractive features of Aphrodisias is the ornamental gate constructed in the middle of the 2nd century. The name Tetrapylon refers to its being composed of four groups of four columns. The entrance lies to the east. The front row of Corinthian columns with spiral fluting look out on to a street with north-south alignment. The second and third columns of this fourfold structure are surmounted by a semicircular lintel with relief figures of Nike and Erotes amid acanthus leaves. The process of repairing and re-erecting the Tetrapylon columns was completed in 1990.
