APHRODISIAS - World Heritage List - 2017 . Geyre/Turkey

Digital Painting

9 July 2017

Three new sites and two extensions added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

whc.unesco.org/en/news/1691

Aphrodisias;
Located in southwestern Turkey, in the upper valley of the Morsynus River, the site consists of two components: the archaeological site of Aphrodisias and the marble quarries northeast of the city. The temple of Aphrodite dates from the 3rd century BCE and the city was built one century later. The wealth of Aphrodisias came from the marble quarries and the art produced by its sculptors. The city streets are arranged around several large civic structures, which include temples, a theatre, an agora, and two bath complexes.

Full explanation:

www.aphrodisias.org/en/

www.geyrevakfi.org/eng/
Introduction
"Aphrodisias," wrote Octavian the Triumvir a few years before he became the Emperor Augustus,
"is the one city from all of Asia that I have selected to be my own". This majestic testimonial is incised, in exquisite Greek lettering, high on what is known as the Archive Wall of the city's Theatre - the wall on which the Aphrodisians recorded the decrees, treaties, laws and privileges of which they were particularly proud.
And no wonder; for they knew that they were blessed among men. First, their unswerving loyalty to Augustus and his successors had earned the immunity from imperial taxation - a sign of imperial favour not lightly bestowed. Second, there was the fame of their city itself, both as a place of religious pilgrimage (for it was, as its name implies, sacred to the goddess Aphrodite) and as a cultural and intellectual centre to which students and scholars flocked from all over the Hellenistic world. Third, there was their superb climate - as perfect as any in the world, with a two-thousand-foot altitude to shield them from the worst of the summer heat. Fourth - and for visitors to Aphrodisias today, perhaps the most important reason of all - there was the marble.
And marble was the Aphrodisians' trump card. Theirs was perhaps the finest available anywhere: a rich creamy white in colour and sparkling with tiny crystals, it could be worked with and against the grain, it could be polished till it dazzled. Moreover, it was accessible: the quarries were almost immediately above the town - an important consideration with a material of which a cubic foot weighs some hundred and fifty pounds. Aphrodisias took full advantage of these twin blessings, thus becoming the centre of a school of sculpture that flourished for an unbroken period of some six hundred years, until a cataclysmic earthquake ended its prosperity for ever.
It was in 1961 that the present continuing programme of excavation began, under the direction of the late Professor Kenan Erim, who dedicated virtually his entire career to the site and worked there every summer until his untimely death, at the age of only sixty, in 1990. The work now continues under co-directors Professor R.R.R. Smith and Christopher Ratté, - and not a year goes by without their adding dramatically to the already astonishing wealth of ancient sculpture that has been brought to the surface in the past forty years. This comes principally - but by no means exclusively - from the Sebasteion, a vast complex devoted to the worship of the deified Roman Emperors. Essentially, this consisted of two parallel colonnades some hundred yards in length, each carrying three superimposed rows of columns; between the columns on the two lower levels ran long rows of superb marble relief panels - perhaps as magnificent a processional way as could be found anywhere in the ancient world.
With several of these panels - and much else besides - being uncovered annually, the authorities are faced with a serious problem of storage and display. The present otherwise admirable museum, opened on the site in 1979, was bursting at the seams within five years of its inauguration; as a result, nearly all the finds of the past fifteen years have had to be locked away in a huge depot, where they can be seen by practically no one. A new museum is therefore essential, and is the subject of the present appeal. Designs have already been provided by the American architects, Cesar Pelli & Associates; the plan is for a squarish building constructed around a rectangular central court, from one corner of which there will extend a long, relatively narrow wing containing, as well as six extra exhibition rooms, a long gallery in which the panels from the Sebasteion can be displayed in a setting similar to that for which they were intended.
Only when this new museum is built will it be possible for visitors to obtain any idea of the richness and variety of this extraordinary site. Even then, however, the museum alone will not be enough; anyone wishing to understand the full magic of Aphrodisias must explore the ruins for himself. He must climb to the topmost gallery of that vast theatre, capable of holding some eight thousand spectators, and gaze out over the country beyond; he must wander between the surviving colonnades of the Sebasteion to the Nymphaeum or ornamental pool, loud with the croakings of a thousand frogs; he must rest for a while in the little semicircular Odeon, as quiet and intimate as the Theatre must have been noisy and tumultuous; he must make his way to the Stadium -the best preserved of its kind anywhere in the Mediterranean-and he must then return at sunset to the central point of the city, the great temple of Aphrodite.
Finally, he will come to the Tetrapylon, that glorious monumental gateway, the columns of which have recently been re-erected to give us a better idea of its former splendour. To many of us, this lovely monument is the most moving of all; for in its shadow stands the simple grave of Kenan Erim, who devoted his life to Aphrodisias and who - like Octavion himself - loved this city more than any other.

Prof. Kenan Erim
(b. 1924 – d. November 4, 1990),

Turkish archaeologist whose name is closely identified with Aphrodisias excavations (in Karacasu town of Aydın, Geyre district).
He is the son of a diplomat and after studying in Switzerland he attained New York University from 1948 on, after his father was appointed to work for Permanent Mission of Turkey to the United Nations. He graduated from Classical Archaeology department in 1953 and received his M.A. and doctorate from Princeton University. He assisted well known archaeologist Professor Karl Erik Sjoquist during the excavations in Morgantina, Sicily, which were carried out by a team from Princeton.
In time, he developed a keen interest in the works of sculptor artisans known as Aphrodisias school. In 1961, he personally organized a discovery and excavation program and initiated the modern research in Aphrodisias.

He was a Classic Age professor in New York University and the chief of Aphrodisias excavations until his death. He made the made the most valuable contributions to the worldwide fame of Aphrodisias with his travels, writings and lectures, and his efforts to provide finance, especially American finance in the excavations are indispensable.
He passed away on November 4th, 1990. His grave is in Geyre. Aphrodisias excavations are still being carried on spiritedly.

Taken in: Turkey / Aydın / Karacasu (show map)

Taken on: May 23, 2016

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Camera: Nikon D7100, f/6.3, 1/160 sec, 36mm (=54mm), ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7100
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	36mm (35mm equivalent: 54mm)
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384
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