Miletus Archaeological Site

Miletus was one of the great cities of the Ionian coast. In the Archaic age it had a busy harbour and served as capital of the Ionian Confederation. Ancient tradition, retold by Pausanias, gives it colourful founding stories, involving Cretan settlers and an Athenian prince, though none of them can be proved.

After the Persians overran the Archaic acropolis in 494 BC, a Hellenistic city grew up around the Lion Harbour and the theatre. The Romans kept its size and layout but filled it with monumental buildings: the Faustina Bath, the Capito Bath, the theatre, the harbour gate and the Lion Harbour monument, the gymnasium, agora gates, a stadium and warehouses.

Then the Great Menderes River silted up the harbour, and the city slowly lost its reason to exist. After the 6th century it became a bishopric and shrank to the area around the theatre and castle. Later it passed to the Menteşe emirs, was renamed Palatia and eventually became the village of Balat, which survived until the earthquake of 1955. Walking the site today, you can read this whole story in the stones.