Following the Via Tauri after crossing the Cilician Gates, Alexander was informed that the governor of Tarsus no longer wished to hold the city for Persia and was ready to give up the town. Afraid that the satrap would plunder the city on his way out, the people got scared and called for Alexander’s help.
At that time, the Macedonians were marching near Anazarbus, which after the first century AD the Romans renamed Caesarea . Eventually, the city grew to be much larger than Ephesos.
Anavarza, as the Turks called it today, has been constantly excavated in the last decades and revealed a double-columned highway, 2.7 kilometers long (see: A double highway in antiquity). So far, 1,360 columns have been unearthed and re-erected together with the entrance gate. This arch, which was built to commemorate the Roman victory over the Persians in the 3rd century AD, was in a very poor state.
The picture published recently by the Archaeology News Network proves, however, that the restoration project was well done. The 14-meter high gate is 28 meters long and 5.40 meters wide, a correction of the previous dimensions giving a height of 10.5 meters and a width of 22.5 meters (see: More news from Anavarza, Roman Caesarea) – an impressive landmark anyway.
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