Nysa on the Maeander

Νῦσα

Türkiye · Aydın

Ancient cityExcavation ongoing
Approximate period300 BCE — 1,400 CEHellenistic; Roman; Byzantine See on the map ↓

In brief

Nysa near Sultanhisar is a Carian city spread across both sides of a deep stream valley. It was known as a center of education in antiquity, and the geographer Strabo studied here.

What was found?

  • 1Two-story library

    This is one of Nysa's educational buildings. Its surviving remains provide an architectural counterpart to ancient accounts describing the city as a center of education.

  • 2Gerontikon

    This is the meeting building described by Strabon as the council of elders. The semicircular seating arrangement within its rectangular plan shows the configuration of the meeting space.

  • 3Theater

    Located on the eastern slope of the city center, this building has a seating section extending slightly beyond a semicircle. It documents the public performance space of the city built on the slopes.

  • 4Gymnasion

    This is a building complex associated with the intellectual and physical education of young people. Together with the library, it is among the tangible evidence of educational life in Nysa.

What does it point to?

The library and gymnasion show that education held a prominent place in Nysa's urban life. The buildings rising on either side of a deep stream gorge, along with bridges and vaulted substructures, reveal how the inhabitants used engineering solutions to occupy difficult terrain.

What did it teach us?

  1. The remains of the library and gymnasion support ancient accounts of Nysa as a center of education.
  2. The Gerontikon shows that the city had a dedicated building for council meetings.
  3. The bridges and vaulted substructures show that an integrated city could be established on terrain divided by a stream.

Images

The gerontikon (Council House of the Elders), originally built during the Hellenistic peri
Carole Raddato · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The Stadium, built at the foot of the gorge with rows of seats cut into the steep hillside
Carole Raddato · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Carian; Greek; Roman; Byzantine
First modern dig
1907
Team / historical
Serdar Hakan Öztaner / Ankara University
Coordinates
37.9017°, 28.1467°

Sources

  1. nysa.ankara.edu.tr
  2. aydin.ktb.gov.tr
  3. en.wikipedia.org

Nearby excavations


—
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12.000

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