This text is a fragment of "The Secrets of Bodrum and Ancient Caria" guidebook.
Photographs by Michel Gybels
Ancient Alinda was a highly defensible mountain fortress overlooking a fertile plain and is now part of the modern small town of Karpuzlu. The ruins of Alinda are among the finest in Caria, hardly surpassed in splendour even by those at nearby Labraunda. Alinda was also one of Anatolia's biggest trade centres, where the products such as olives, figs, and olive oil were sold.
Historical overview:
The earlies possible records of the existence of a settlement in the location of Alinda is the Hittite period, i.e. the second millennium BCE. This settlement was called Ialanti (or Ijalanta), and as such it appears in Hittite sources, such as the documents from the reign of Hittite king Mursili II. According to these documents, Ialanti was a city connected to the Seha River Land, a reluctant vassal state of the Hittite Empire, located in Western Anatolia. The Annals of Mursili II recount how this king consolidated power over the region around 1320 BCE.
Much later, in the 5th century BCE, Alinda appears on the Athenian Tribute Lists as the member of the Delian League. For instance, in 453 BCE, it contributed 1.52 talents, which is an amount comparable to the money paid by Halicarnassus which amounted to 1.67 talents. We have this information thanks to the fragmentary inscriptions that once stood on the Acropolis of Athens and recorded the tribute paid by the allied cities in the third quarter of the 5th century BCE.
However, a large part of the ancient ruins date back only to the 4th century BCE, particularly from the reigns of the members of the Hecatomnid dynasty, especially Mausolus and Ada, who ruled ancient Caria. It is important now to look at the genealogy of the Hecatomnids to understand what happened in Alinda.
Hecatomnus, the eponymous founder of the dynasty and the satrap of Caria, had five children: Mausolus, Pixodarus, Artemisia, Ada, and Idrieus. Four of the siblings intermarried as Mausolus wed Artemisia and Ada was married to Idrieus while Pixodarus married outside the family. Every child of Hecatomnus governed Caria at some point. First, Mausolus and Artemisia ruled together, and after Mausolus' death, Artemisia ruled alone until her death in 344 BCE. Then, Idrieus and Ada ruled together for four years, until his death. After the death of her husband, Ada became the sole satrap of Caria, but was deposed and expelled by her brother Pixodarus in 340 BCE.
Pixodarus cultivated the friendship with Persia, even giving his daughter, also called Ada, in marriage to a Persian named Orontobates. Pixodarus' sister, Queen Ada, escaped to the mountain fortress of Alinda, where she maintained her rule in exile. Meanwhile, Pixodarus died in 335 BCE and was succeeded by his son-in-law, the Persian Orontobates. After Alexander the Great entered Asia Minor and captured Miletus in 334 BCE, Ada contacted and adopted him as her son. Then, she helped him in his siege of Halicarnassus. As a result, when the Macedonians finally took that city, she was reinstated as the queen of Caria and ruled until her death a few years later.
Ada's popularity with the populace of Caria guaranteed the Carians' loyalty to Alexander, as recorded by Arrian in Anabasis: "Ada meanwhile held only Alinda, the strongest fortress in Caria; and when Alexander entered Caria she went to meet him, surrendering Alinda and adopting Alexander as her son. Alexander gave Alinda to her charge, and did not reject the title of son, and when he had taken Halicarnassus and became master of the rest of Caria, he gave her command of the whole country."
Although there is no hard proof, some scholars believe that Queen Ada's tomb was discovered near Bodrum (ancient Halicarnassus) in 1989 when a construction crew began digging the foundations of a new construction project. The archaeologists took over and dug out a sarcophagus containing the remains of a woman of significant wealth, as her jewellery testified. It was tentatively proposed that the remains belong to Ada, the last Carian ruler of the Hekatomnid dynasty. Today, the finds are on display in the Hall of the Carian Princes within the Castle of Saint Peter in Bodrum.
By the mid 3rd century BCE, the Seleucids established a garrison in Alinda. The city was apparently renamed "Alexandria by the Latmos" shortly afterwards, as it was recorded by Stephanus of Byzantium. He also mentioned that the city had a temple of Apollo with a statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles. The prior name of Alinda was restored by 81 BCE at the latest and the city appears as Alinda in Ptolemy's Geography, written in the 2nd century CE. Alinda remained an important commercial city, minting its own coins from the third century BCE to the 3rd century CE.
Alinda also appears on the lists of bishoprics from the Byzantine period. Among its bishops, several names have been preserved to our times, including Promachios and John who were both active in the mid 5th century, and Theodoretus who lived one century later. The bishopric of Alinda was under the control of Aphrodisias metropolis.
Archaeological research:
The ruins of ancient Alinda have not been restored, but are very well-preserved and frequently visited by tourists. In modern times, the Englishmen Richard Pococke and Richard Chandler from the Society of Dilettanti, were the first to report on Alinda from their journeys to the Middle East in the mid-18th century. They were the first to suggest that the ruins visible near Karpuzlu belonged to the ancient city of Alinda. Their observation was confirmed by the coins discovered around the city.
In the 19th century, William Henry Waddington, Philippe Le Bas, and Pierre Trémaux followed with travel descriptions and drawings. At the end of the 19th century, Alinda was visited by a German historian, archaeologist and classical scholar, Ernst Fabricius, accompanied by a geographer, Heinrich Kiepert. In 1889, they made several studies of Alinda's agora.
In the middle of the 20th century, individual questions about the settlement development and building history were investigated, with a focus on the necropolis. However, until today, no excavations have taken place in Alinda. From 2007 to 2012, a survey project by the Institute for the Cultural History of Antiquity of the Austrian Academy of Sciences was carried out in the ancient settlement of Alinda, led by Peter Ruggendorfer. As the result of these geophysical and geological studies, the span of Alinda was determined from the late classical to the beginning of the Byzantine period. The team also carried out measurements and identifications of several buildings and structures.
In February 2018, four kilometres of a 2,300-year-old stone road, which connects the ancient cities of Alinda and Heracleia by Latmus were destroyed by villagers to make way for their olive groves. The construction of the ancient stone road was made at a significant expense by the ancient city of Herakleia's benefactor Pleistarchus, who ruled Caria for several years following the battle of Ipsos in 301 BCE. Even today, long stretches of this road connect the ancient cities of Myus, Alinda, Alabanda, Tralleis with each other, as well as the Menderes River Valley to the Marsyas River Valley.
Interestingly, in December 2021, a cave with rock paintings was discovered two kilometres northwest of Alinda. The paintings, found in an area known as Bitişik Tepe, are much older than this ancient city as they date back to the 5th millennium BCE.
Sightseeing:
Alinda has not one, but two acropolises, of different heights. Within the Lower Acropolis, there are the most spectacular preserved structures of the city, including an agora, a market building, a theatre, and a temple. The Upper Acropolis was, most probably, settled earlier than the Lower Acropolis. This second acropolis contained most likely a royal palace, in which case it may have been the residence of Queen Ada, the last ruler of Caria. In the case of both acropolises, many of the ancient buildings are heavily damaged, and it is challenging to determine their original functions and designs.
The city walls of Alinda consist of a stretch separating the two acropolises from each other, as well as the walls encompassing the Lower and Upper acropolises separately. Additionally, eight well-preserved defensive towers are visible along the walls. The differences in masonry and workmanship of these walls indicate that they were built in different periods of the city's history. The wall surrounding the Upper Acropolis dates back to the period before Queen Ada made Alinda her fortress, possibly in the early 4th century BCE. The Lower Acropolis only developed as a settlement after Ada came to reside there in exile.
On the basis of the course of the city walls, scholars suggested that Alinda was expanded in the later period of the Roman Empire. This Roman-era city remains hidden under the modern village of Karpuzlu.
The only temple discovered within Alinda so far is located between the acropolises, towards the western part of the Lower Acropolis. Its simple design and the lack of visible ornaments suggests that solidity was preferred by its architects. The temple is, therefore, a representative example of local Carian temples of the region.
The theatre of Alinda was constructed directly below the summit of the Lower Acropolis, facing the south. It is a largely intact building from the Hellenistic era, most probably from the early 2nd century BCE. Later, it was expanded by the Romans in the 1st century CE. Its capacity is estimated to be five thousand seats. The theatre's rows of seats and cavea have been preserved at approximately their original heights.
Below the theatre, there is a monumental market building attached to the adjacent agora. This is a well-preserved Hellenistic building, 99 meters long and 15 meters wide. Originally, it had three floors. The lower two floors are still mostly intact. The first level was made up of pairs of shops that opened onto a terrace to the south. A double row of columns divided the second floor, forming a single long hall, lit by a large window to the west and narrow openings in the front wall. The top storey was levelled with and adjoined a flat, open square-shaped agora with the sides 30 meters long, situated to the north.
Near the summit of the hill, there is a nicely preserved two-storey Hellenistic square tower, from which a tunnel once led to the theatre. The walled Upper Acropolis with cisterns is located to the north-west, suggesting it was a refuge when danger struck.
Furthermore, there are several well-preserved tombs and ruins of small Hellenistic buildings along the path. The tombs, well-protected in the necropolis areas, are also among the significant remains of the city. Chamber tombs are scattered throughout the surroundings of the city, extending to the far slope of the hill beyond the aqueduct. These tombs are mostly of the Carian type, which are cavities cut into large pieces of rock and covered with a separate cover stone. The sarcophagi are generally plain, with signs of engraving only at the short edges of the lids.
In the valley below, to the west of the ruins of Alinda, is an extended section of a magnificent Roman aqueduct supported by four preserved arches. A section of the solid wall supporting the water channel has been pierced by a 1.8-meter-wide gate. Over the arches is the water channel, with some of its covering stones still in position. This aqueduct is evidence that ancient Alinda had an extensive water distribution system.
Visitor tips:
As of 2024, the entrance to the site of Alinda is free of charge. The ruins are open to visitors every day, from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. In the small town of Karpuzlu there are a few restaurants and cafés. If you visit the area on Saturday, you can also check out the large bazaar that takes place in Karpuzlu.
To find accommodation, head to Çine (33 km to the east) or Yatağan (55 km to the southeast).
Getting there:
By public transport: Coaches reach Karpuzlu from the city of Çine. From Karpuzlu, you can walk to the ruins of Alında, following signs from the Yeni Mahalle area near the bazaar. Be warned - getting to the top of the hill can be strenuous, as it involves climbing a steep slope (1 kilometer of walking). You can also take a circular walk along the access road to the top (4 kilometres).
By taxi: You can reach Alında by taxi from Çine, with the option of visiting another ancient city, Alabanda, on the way back. You can also hire a taxi from Karpuzlu to take you to the top of the hill.
By car: To drive to Karpuzlu, you need to get off the main through road in the region, the D550 connecting Aydın (to the north) with Muğla (to the south). Coming from the north, you should turn off this route in the town of Çaltı and drive 26 km west along the road with the obvious name, Çine Karpuzlu Yolu.
If you are travelling from the south, for example from Yatağan, you can use the same access - it is a longer route, but of better quality than the alternative, the winding Milas Karpuzlu Yolu road, which branches off the D550 near Yatağan.
Bibliography:
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