Stratonikeia is an ancient city in Turkey.

The city of Stratonikeia is many thousands of years old. The city lived and flourished in Caria.

From him there was a sacred road to Lagina to the temple of Hecate. Its first names are Idrias and Krisaoris. Around the 3rd century BC. the Syrian king Seleucus I gave his wife Stratonikos to his son Antiochus. Later, Antiochus I named the city after his wife Stratonica. This is one of the most unusual and beautiful love stories. The love of Antiochus and Stratonica and the paternal love of Seleucus has inspired artists to paintings and books for many centuries.

The heyday of Stratonikea came during the reign of the Seleucids and the Roman Empire. The city minted their own coins. The city lived during the Ottoman Empire. Seljuk baths remind of this.

and the Shaban Agha mosque.

Before her, there was a Water Mosque in this place.

Time swallowed up the city under the layer of earth. On its stones and foundations stands the Turkish village of Eskihisar. Now the residents have been relocated to another place. There are only a few residents left. People lived and died here during the times of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, in the Ottoman period. How many destinies, passions, lives sounded on this earth!

The history of the opening of the city is amazing – the earthquake of 1957 opened the ancient ruins. Later in 2008, archaeologists joined the excavations of the city.
What is left for us?
The scale of the restoration of the city is striking. Parking lots, trade booths, toilets, good roads have been built. Everything is designed for a large tourist flow from resort towns.
There are sarcophagi to the right of the road leading to the city.

Maybe these are echoes of cults when the dead guarded the living.

We follow the road paved in the Ottoman period, which leads us to the baths

There is a small house with a cafe behind the mosque.

Hospitable owners treat them to flatbreads with herbs, cheese, potatoes

and ayran.

When I inquired about the jam for sale,

then they immediately brought us saucers with various delicious jams.
A huge Gymnasium opens behind the cafe-house – a place where people studied art and played sports.

The gymnasium has a rectangular shape, marble parts and impressive dimensions, which in no way match with local buildings.

Returning to the cafe-house, we go further. We find ourselves in front of what remains of the early Christian church.

We pass by the Roman baths.

Going around the church on the right and turning left along the street, it turns out to be in front of the imposing walls of Buleuteria – the house of the city council.

If you go straight from the church, the road leads to the theater.

Its steps are badly damaged in places.

I didn’t want to go up. We go to the theater past fig trees with ripe figs lying on the road.
Groups of workers are visible everywhere, rebuilding the city. It is very good that there is an opportunity to see the history of mankind, to see ancient cities.
11/09/2020