Mighty Aphrodisias

Here is a special note for current or former NYU students who read this blog:

If you've ever wondered why your financial aid package wasn't as big as you had hoped, Aphrodisias is likely the answer. The excavation of the site was begun by an NYU professor in the 60's, and is still being sponsored by NYU today. There is your fun (or not so fun) fact of the day.

Aphrodisias was the capitol city of Caria in the days of the Roman Empire. For this reason, they had a large stadium in addition to the normal amphitheater (which was in every city) and the senate building. The stadium is perhaps the most impressive thing about Aphrodisias. It had a seating capacity of around 30,000, and it is still mostly intact. There are a small number of seats missing from one of the corners, and the athletic field is about two meters higher than it once was, but you can still get a feel for what the stadium looked like. Unfortunately, the marble is no longer glittering white.

Another fascinating site is the gate at the entrance of the city. It's a four-entrance gate with 16 columns, and beautiful carvings along the top. Aphrodisias had a school of sculpture in the city, a very famous one in Roman times. The people of the city were considered something akin to cultural assets because of their sculpture work, and they demonstrated their skills by decorating buildings with beautiful friezes and reliefs.

This was once a gate.

This is the stadium. Still largely intact.

The other excavated sites include a bathhouse (of course) where the entire pool has been uncovered, one of the largest agoras we have seen, a theater that had carved marble faces in the friezes expressing all sorts of emotions, and the temple of Aphrodite, which the city is most famous for. According to our guide, this Aphrodite was not the same Greek goddess of love we all think of. Most of the goddesses in the area took on the names of Greek goddesses (Aphrodite, Artemis, Hestia, etc.), but they were almost exclusively earth-mother goddesses that were meant to bring bountiful harvests, happy homes, and fertility to the region.

Just hanging out in the senate building.

Emily walking through what used to be a pool.

Approximately half the agora

The small-ish amphitheater

Most of the reliefs and statues have been moved into a museum that is part of the tour to protect them from the elements. Copies stand in their place outside. The detail that can still be seen in the reliefs is very impressive. The number of statues that have been unearthed is quite high, and the museum is definitely worth a look.

These are those carvings they were talking about.

One additional note about Aphrodisias: it is one of the least defensible cities we have seen. It isn't build near the sea or on top of a hill. It isn't centrally located in relation to the rest of the state either. It became important because of its marble quarries. The region around Aphrodisias still produces most of Turkey's marble. Those marble quarries supplied a large swath of the Roman empire. Aphrodisias is a fun day trip for any historian or any NYU student. It is good to see where your money goes, I guess...

Journey to the Past

For those of you who are animated movie buffs (or girls, for that matter), you may recognize the title from the 90s movie, "Anastasia", a cute song-and-dance movie about the last remaining Russian Romanov, Anastasia. Today we got to visit the city where they were presumably murdered, Yekaterinburg.

According to the Lonely Planet Russia guide, they tested the bones of the Romanovs in the 90's - Anastasia's was with them. Turns out it was another daughter who was not accounted for. Sucks for the movie :(

Church of the Blood, where the Romanovs were killed. Monument to the Romanov family.

Anyway, Yekaterinburg is a lovely city with most of it's historical center spread out over many blocks. It's a modern city with trams, trolleys, and buses connecting all corners. There are a plethora of pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes, and shopping centers (even a Gucci!). It feels like the first cosmopolitan city we have hit since we left Seoul.

In the center of Yekaterinburg is the City Pond, created by a dam. Around the pond are some nice parks including Lover's Lane and the Keyboard Monument, a walking path, and the Governor's Mansion. And what Russian city would be complete without it's statue of Lenin!

City Pond and Lover's Lane

Keyboard Monument and Lenin

We walked around for 3 hours admiring the sights, architecture, streets, and people before we hit the post office (see previous post). Our favorite church, among a dozen, was the Ascension Church. From the side it was a beautiful sky blue and white, with gold towers. From the front it was old and peeling; obviously it hadn't been restored yet!

Side and front view of Ascension Church

Yekaterinburg is a good city to stop in for a day along the Trans-Siberian. We liked the history behind the city and the sights it had to offer. We also liked how walkable everything is. If you get a chance to visit you'll enjoy yourself.