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All images © by Roberto Piperno, owner of the domain. Write to romapip@quipo.it. Text edited by Rosamie Moore.
Page added in April 2008.


- Miletus - page two
(theatrical masks at Myra)


Roman street next to the southern market

The construction techniques used by the Romans in building their streets have proved to be very effective.

Granaries and detail of a lavatory

The southern market was flanked by warehouses and granaries. The Romans took care also of some minor, but necessary facilities. An aqueduct provided Miletus with an ample supply of water; the town had sewers carrying drainage water to the sea.

Serapeum and detail of the god's portrait

In the IIIrd century the belief in the traditional gods weakened. Emperor Heliogabalus promoted the worship of Sol Invictus (Invincible Sun). Although his attempt to impose this new religion did not succeed, the worship of Sun (which had almost no relevance in the Greek myth) was very popular for the whole century.
In a temple of Miletus built during that period Serapis, a deity with elements of both Greek Zeus and Egyptian Osiris, was portrayed crowned by sun rays. This iconography of the god is at the origin of the halo which surrounds the saints.

Baths dedicated to Annia Faustina; views of the calidarium (hot room)

Miletus had several baths; the largest ones were built by Emperor Antoninus Pius and dedicated to his wife Annia Faustina.

Baths of Annia Faustina: views of the frigidarium (cold room)

In the frigidarium bathers could swim (or just stand) in a low pool. Water was continuously replaced; it spouted from the mouth of a marble lion.

Baths of Annia Faustina: apodyterion (changing rooms from the Greek expression meaning to strip one's self)

Bathers left their clothes in changing rooms aligned along the walls of a very large hall. They then warmed up by doing some light exercising in that same hall.

Ruins of the western market

Parts of the archaeological area do not receive enough attention. In February 2008 the access path to the ruins of the western market and to a temple to Athena was not easy. Other buildings (e.g. baths near Via Sacra) were invaded by thick vegetation.

(left) Statue of Apollo found at the Baths of Annia Faustina, now at the
Archaeological Museum of Istanbul; (centre/right) other statues found at Miletus, now at the Archaeological Museum of Izmir

The finest works of art found at Miletus were moved to major museums in Turkey (Istanbul and Izmir) and to Berlin.

Scattered reliefs: (left) Hermes; (right) a hunting scene and funerary reliefs

Other works of art are displayed in the small museum of the archaeological area; those shown above are scattered in a sort of open air exhibition along the (modern) road leading to the theatre.

Ilyas Bey Camii

The decline of Miletus was briefly interrupted in the early XVth century. The Mentese, Muslim rulers of a small state which was eventually conquered by the Ottomans in 1426, tried to revive the town by reactivating one of its ports. The fine mosque shown above belongs to that period.

Ilyas Bey Camii (details)

For more fine mosques see a page on those of
Bursa. For more stork nests see a page on Silifke.

Friends you can meet in Miletus

The image used as background for this page shows a detail of the monument to Pompey (page one).

Return to page one or move to:
Introductory page
Priene
Didyma
Iasos
Euromos
Milas
Kaunos
Telmessos
Tlos
Xanthos
Letoon
Patara
Antiphellos
Simena
Myra
Phaselis
Termessos
Attalia (Antalya)
Perge
Aspendos
Side
Map of Turkey with all the locations covered in this website



SEE THESE OTHER EXHIBITIONS (for a full list see my detailed index).