Knots of ancient Aydin

Aydin is the city where you will find the warm welcome of local people while a hot weather of Mediterranean climate will accompany you. Famous Greek historian Herodotus for this city said: “It is the most wonderful place under the sky with the best climate on earth to live.” Famous Turkish traveler and explorer Evliya Chelebi has praised Aydin by saying: “It is the place where pure olive oil flows from its mountains and honey from its plains.”

Aydin has always attracted people by its unique location, warm climate, beautiful coastlines, delicious olive oil dishes and folk dances. With warm winters and very hot summers, there are three distinctive features that make Aydin privileged: fig fruit, Efeler and keşkek (keshkek).

 Although fig fruit is grown in many parts of the world, the best quality figs are  grown in a great abundance in Aydin due to its geographical position. Fig fruit, which is consumed wet and dry, has extremely high nutritional value.  

Efeler make Aydin privileged both in Turkey and in the world. Efe; is literally a symbol of courage, boldness and generousity. They have played a critical role in Turkey’s history. Efeler made an epic defense against  the Greeks in the War of Independence. This defense set an example for all of Anatolia. Efeler represent a culture in their own right with their distinctive clothing, a specific lifestyle and an authentic dance moves.  The melody and movements of their dance are so unique that they have recieved honors at many nationa  and international folk dance competitions.  

If you attend a wedding or any other event in Aydin, you will taste a unique, local meal by the name “keshkek”. The dish, which is very demanding to cook, is a legacy of Aydin local people “Yoruks”. A lot of visitors who want to taste this dish are coming from different regions of Turkey.

Coming close to the heart of the matter, Aydin is truly an open-air space of history and it   attracts  thousands of tourists with its clear water beaches and charming  warm climate as well. You will feel the breath of every single civilization in this modest city where many civilizations have existed since ancient times. Look who we had here: Lydians, Persians, Alexander the Great, the Kingdom of Pergamon, Rome, the Byzantine Empire, Anatolian Seljuks, Aydinogullari Principality, Ottomans and so on…

Aydin has world-renowned ancient cities such as Aphrodisias, Alabanda, Alinda, the Temple of Apollo, Miletus, Nysa, Priene, Tralleis, and Magnesia. Aydin, the Valley of Civilizations which displays millenial history of rock paintings in the Beshparmak(Latmos) Mountains discovered by Dr. Anneliese Peschlow. In the light of the this information, it is so upsetting that very little known about Aydin Province.

We pursued three ancient ruins and rock paintings which are less known or not known at all in this unique city where Western Civilization meets Eastern civilization. So much so that the name of one of the remain was not identified and registered in historic places checklist. This unknown ancient ruin is waiting to be unraveled in the farthest corner of Aydin Madran Mountain. We have given a temporary name to these remains in order to understand what we are talking about throughout this research: Madran Baba Mountain Ruins ( MMBR ). The name was given on account of its location. It is at the foot of Madran Mountain. 

It appears that there are so many historical artifacts in Aydin Province such as ruins, inscriptions, pictures that have not been identified yet. We could only bring to light the writings on the walls of a cave. Nobody knows how many cave writings from ancient times are waiting for us with a deep patience. Every piece of information to be discovered will be a torch which sheds the light one the dark pages of history.

No one could have imagined that there are 8,000-year-old cave paintings on the rocks in the LATMOS forest in the district of Kocharli in Aydin Province. We found out this hidden treasure and we wanted primarily our local community and later on the whole world to see and protect these mysterious rocks.

GERGA  which is located in the Chine District nearby Deliktash surroundings dates back to the Archaic period. There are the remains of the city with very little information about it waiting to be investigated. It seems that this precious work from ancient times deserves worldwide recognition which belongs to world heritage.

The ancient city of  ORTHOSIA located in the village of Donduran in Aydin, is also waiting its turn to come to light. There are many historical cities in Aydin which lie beneath the surface of its earth. We hope that this project which we started for the recognition of Aydin, which is not even noticed by the local people in the terms of unknown wealth, will bring us closer to our goal.  create an awareness in our community on a large scale and if we can make a connection with our newly discovered small ancient site, past heritage will remain connected to its roots in safer hands. In other words, we will make the first connection with the newly discovered ancient remains in remote corner of Aydin by creating an awareness in our community and we will feel proud to preserve and pass on our ancient values to the next generation.