Magnesia on the Maeander

Magnesia took its name from the Magnetes of Thessaly who settled here with some Cretans, on the earlier site of Leucophrys, but its claim is architectural. Hermogenes, working here in the second century BCE, built the Temple of Artemis Leukophryene and wrote about what he was doing, and his treatises - lost, but summarised by Vitruvius - shaped Roman temple design and, through Vitruvius, Renaissance architecture. The temple was pseudodipteral, with a single ring of columns set at the distance of a double one, giving a broad covered walkway around the cella, and it became the textbook example of the type. The site also has a large agora, a theatre, a gymnasium and a stadium that was buried under Meander silt for centuries and has been excavated in recent decades, with its seating rows and vaulted entrances emerging substantially intact. Excavation is ongoing and the site changes year to year. It sits in flat farmland beside a main road, is barely signposted, and gets a fraction of the visitors of Ephesus an hour away.

What you'll find

• The Artemis temple - Hermogenes' pseudodipteral plan on the ground.
• The stadium - seating rows dug out of the river silt.
• The agora and theatre - the civic centre in the fields.
• The ongoing dig - new areas opened each season.

When to go

April to June and September to October. Mornings; the site is flat, open and offers no shade at all.

Practical notes

Much is at foundation level and parts flood after rain. Interpretation is minimal and signage poor. Active excavation fences off areas. A car is required.

Nearby

Aydın's fig orchards fill the valley; Ephesus and Selçuk are about an hour north-west.

Key facts