The slight remains of Teos, in the hills above the small beach resort of Akkum, can also be visited from the bjou resort of Sığacık. Teos was once one of the 12 city-states that belonged to the powerful Panionic League, although most of what survives at the site postdates the Ionian period.
This is not a major site unless you are very interested in archaeology. However, there is a small museum and ongoing excavations are likely to uncover much more of the site as part of an effort to make more of this rather cut-off little corner of the middle Aegean.
Around the site
The first thing you’ll see on arriving at the site are the remains of an important Temple of Dionysius which appears to date back to the second century B.C. The completed building is believed to have been the largest temple to the wine god in the ancient world.
Work on the temple has been attributed to an architect from Priene named Hermogenes and in its remodelled Ionic form it certainly shows some similarity with the Temple of Athena in that city. Slight remains of one of the stoas that surrounded the temple can also be seem.
Temple of Dionysius
If you walk straight ahead from the temple you will come to the finest ruins on the site which your taxi driver will probably tell you are of the theatre but are in reality the remains of a very sizeable bouleterion, probably originally built at about the same time as the temple but remodelled, as so often, in the 1st century AD by local dignitaries whose names appeared on the statue bases found here.
Today nothing much except a wide empty space remains of the agora but slightly more can be seen of the theatre at the base of the acropolis. Although the stone seats have mostly disappeared (to build the walls at Sığacık?) you can still see the indentation in the hillside where they would have been together with parts of the stage backdrop and the supporting walls.
Transport info
Most of the minibuses from Seferihisar to Akkum via Sığacık bypass the ruins of Teos although every two hours there is one to Güneşköy that does pass them. If it’s not too hot you could take the bus one way, then walk back to the main road to pick up the regular bus.
Taxi drivers in Akkum and Sığacık will be happy to take you to the site for a fixed fee to include waiting time.
Ancient olive tree in Teos agora
