First restorations of Termessos

When I wrote my blog about Termessos (see: Alexander avoided the siege of Termessos) a few years ago, I repeatedly mentioned how little of the city had been cleared and excavated – be it to my greatest pleasure.

Understandably, there comes a time when some restorations and/or reconstructions are in order and the first choice fell on Termessos' 2,300-year-old city walls. It is a rather clear-cut project since almost 3,000 stone blocks are readily available. They have all been scanned and numbered in order to reconstruct one-third of the original one-thousand-meter-long wall. Modern cranes are now handling the blocks weighing as much as two and a half tons. It makes you wonder how the ancient Greeks managed to move and put these heavy stones into place. The restoration also includes four towers inside the wall. When this stretch of the wall is completed, it will stand to a height of six meters.

More excavation work has been initiated at Termessos and part of the ancient road leading from the ancient city to Attaleia (modern Antalya) has been exposed (partially still hidden, however, underneath the modern asphalt road). It is nothing more than a natural route connecting inland Pisidia to the sea that was used since prehistoric times. The most exciting part of this discovery is the fact that this may well be the road Alexander used when he besieged Termessos in 333 BC.

As mentioned in my earlier blog, there are many skeleton remains of Hellenistic and Roman buildings like the temples of Zeus and Artemis, the so-called Corinthian temple, the Heroon for an unknown hero, the Agora with its underground cisterns, the Roman Bouleuterion, the initially Greek theater that was later remodeled to meet Roman needs, the Roman Baths and Gymnasium, several fountains or Nymphaeums, and most striking of all, the impressive Tomb of Alcetas.

It is clear that Termessos has a lot to tell since it was only abandoned in the 5^th century AD after nearly one thousand years of existence.

[Pictures are from Hurriyet  Daily News, click here and here.]