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Dick Osseman | profile | all galleries >> Miletus Priene Turkey >> Miletus or Milete tree view | thumbnails | slideshow | map

Miletus or Milete

Bütün Türkiye resimleri için buraya basınız veya Başka antik yerleri için buraya basınız
This gallery is in the SW Aegean and W Med topic
My page with very many Turkish cities OR Other antique cities


From the Enc. Britt.: Byzantine Palation , Turkish Balat. Ancient Greek city of western Anatolia, some 20 miles (30 km) south of the present city of Söke, Turkey. It lies near the mouth of the Büyükmenderes (Menderes) River.

Before 500 BC, Miletus was the greatest Greek city in the east. It was the natural outlet for products from the interior of Anatolia and had a considerable wool trade with Sybaris, in southern Italy. Miletus was important in the founding of the Greek colony of Naukratis in Egypt and founded more than 60 colonies on the shores of the Black Sea, including Abydos, Cyzicus, Sinope (now Sinop), Olbia, and Panticapaeum. In addition to its commerce and colonization,the city was distinguished for its literary and scientific-philosophical figures, among them Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Hecataeus. Together with the people of the other two Ionian cities of Caria, Myus and Priene, the Milesians spoke a distinctive Ionian dialect. Little is known about Milesian government before 500 BC. At the beginning and end of the 6th century BC, however, the city was ruled by the tyrants Thrasybulus and Histiaeus, respectively.

In the 7th century BC Miletus came into conflict with the neighbouring state of Lydia, and it probably acknowledged Lydian overlordship in the mid-6th century. In the latter part of the 6th century, it came under Persian rule, along with the other Greek cities of Anatolia. About 499 BC the Milesians led the Ionian revolt that marked the beginning of the Greco-Persian Wars (q.v.). The city was stormed and sacked by the Persians in 494. After the Persian defeat by the Greeks (479), Miletus joined the Athenian-dominated Delian League. By the mid-5th century the city had been weakened and impoverished by internal divisions, and in 442 it was defeated in war by neighbouring Samos.

Its fortunes soon revived, however, and the Milesians set about rebuilding their city on a new grid plan of the type invented in this period by Hippodamus of Miletus. In 412 the city sided with Sparta against Athens; before 350 Mausolus of Caria ruled it, and it fell to Alexander in 334 after a siege. Hellenistic rulers who competed for influence at Miletus included the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes and Eumenes II of Pergamum, both about 170 BC. Miletus retained its commercial importance and received special attention from the Roman emperors Augustus and Trajan. By the 6th century AD, however, its two harbours had silted up, and it was eventually abandoned.

To visit, I stayed in Söke, a city that has nothing special, but which turned out to be an excellent spot to get on busses to (at least) Priene, Miletus, Didyma, Aydın and probably Ephesus. I found travel times greatly reduced compared to when I visited places from
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Miletus Museum
Miletus Museum
Miletus' theatre
Miletus' theatre
Fortress at theatre side
Fortress at theatre side
Great Harbour Monument
Great Harbour Monument
Ionic gallery
Ionic gallery
Baths of Faustina
Baths of Faustina
Capito Baths
Capito Baths
İlyas Bey
İlyas Bey
Walk to Miletus
Walk to Miletus
Miletus 2007 4538.jpg
Miletus 2007 4538.jpg
Miletus 2007 4539.jpg
Miletus 2007 4539.jpg
Milete 99 013.jpg
Milete 99 013.jpg
Milete 99 014.jpg
Milete 99 014.jpg
Miletus 2007 4546.jpg
Miletus 2007 4546.jpg
Miletus 2007 4547.jpg
Miletus 2007 4547.jpg
Miletus 2007 4548.jpg
Miletus 2007 4548.jpg
Miletus 2007 4570.jpg
Miletus 2007 4570.jpg
Miletus 2007 4562.jpg
Miletus 2007 4562.jpg
Miletus 2007 4563.jpg
Miletus 2007 4563.jpg
Miletus 2007 4571.jpg
Miletus 2007 4571.jpg
Delphinion
Delphinion
Miletus 2007 4576.jpg
Miletus 2007 4576.jpg
Miletus 2007 4577.jpg
Miletus 2007 4577.jpg
Miletus 2007 4578.jpg
Miletus 2007 4578.jpg
Miletus 2007 4600.jpg
Miletus 2007 4600.jpg
Miletus 2007 4603.jpg
Miletus 2007 4603.jpg
Miletus 2007 4608.jpg
Miletus 2007 4608.jpg
Miletus 2007 4609.jpg
Miletus 2007 4609.jpg
Nymphaeum
Nymphaeum
Miletus 2007 4587.jpg
Miletus 2007 4587.jpg
Miletus 2007 4588.jpg
Miletus 2007 4588.jpg
Miletus 2007 4589.jpg
Miletus 2007 4589.jpg
Miletus 2007 4590.jpg
Miletus 2007 4590.jpg
Miletus 2007 4591.jpg
Miletus 2007 4591.jpg
Miletus 2007 4592.jpg
Miletus 2007 4592.jpg
Miletus 2007 4593.jpg
Miletus 2007 4593.jpg
Miletus 2007 4594.jpg
Miletus 2007 4594.jpg
Miletus 2007 4595.jpg
Miletus 2007 4595.jpg
Miletus 2007 4596.jpg
Miletus 2007 4596.jpg
Miletus 2007 4597.jpg
Miletus 2007 4597.jpg
Miletus 2007 4598.jpg
Miletus 2007 4598.jpg
Miletus 2007 4599.jpg
Miletus 2007 4599.jpg
Miletus 2007 4601.jpg
Miletus 2007 4601.jpg
Miletus 2007 4604.jpg
Miletus 2007 4604.jpg
Miletus 2007 4605.jpg
Miletus 2007 4605.jpg
Miletus 2007 4606.jpg
Miletus 2007 4606.jpg
Miletus 2007 4607.jpg
Miletus 2007 4607.jpg
Miletus strange thing
Miletus strange thing
Milete 99 020.jpg
Milete 99 020.jpg
Milete 99 023.jpg
Milete 99 023.jpg
Milete 99 028.jpg
Milete 99 028.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3316.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3316.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3317 Panorama.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3317 Panorama.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3318.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3318.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3325.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3325.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3326.jpg
Miletus October 2015 3326.jpg
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