Great city that died Population: 197,300 (Torbalı)
At Metropolis, south of İzmir in the Yeniköy district of Torbalı, the remains of a city dating back to the Early Bronze Age and flourishing in the Hellenistic and Roman periods are still being excavated without much fanfare.
Not much is known about the town which is thought to have taken its intriguing name from a temple to Meter Gallesia, the Mother Goddess. However, it appears to have fallen under the sway first of the Aydınoğlu emirate and then of the Ottomans. By the 19th century the old town’s hillside site had been abandoned in favour of Torbalı, an ugly new settlement that straddles the main road to Kuşadası.
Visit Metropolis today and you’re almost guaranteed to have the site to yourself. The most prominent attraction is a restored theatre which seems to have been one of the earliest such stone buildings erected in Anatolia. In Roman times it could have seated up to 4,000 spectators, the VIPs accommodated in comfortable individually-carved seats right in front of the stage.
The theatre lies to the west of the site. Head east and you will come to the part of town where all the important public buildings – the Agora, the Stoa and the Bouleterion – once stood.
The Bouleterion was the equivalent of a modern Belediye (Town Hall) building, a council chamber where the authorities would have assembled to make decisions about local life. It’s possible to make out rows of stone seats with carved lion-foot support brackets, but at a later date the town must have contracted in size and now a stretch of the Byzantine wall slices right through the middle of them.
Nearby stand the remains of the Stoa, a covered walkway where the locals would have gathered to talk as they did in the more famous example in Athens.
Here, too, are extensive remains of a bathhouse whose ancient under-floor heating system has been exposed, and of a gymnasium where young people would have come not just for sport but also to study. You will also be able to see the remains of a public toilet block re-equipped with a wooden seat to show how it could have been shared by around 25 people sitting side by side.
A short climb uphill leads to the Acropolis where the remains of a Temple of Ares (one of only two known in Anatolia) dating back to the first century were uncovered inside third-century walls.
Don’t leave without visiting the Terraced Houses near the main entrance. Excavations have revealed houses whose walls, like those of the Terraced Houses in Ephesus, would have been covered with frescoes and whose floors would have been carpeted with mosaics. Several large mosaics have been uncovered.
Four cisterns have also been found at the site which will help to explain how it was kept supplied with water.
Sleeping
If you don’t want to spend the night in İzmir there are a couple of hotels in Torbalı.
Metropolis Hotel. Tel: 0232-856 9798
Otel Torbalı. Tel: 0232-853 2540
Transport info
The İzban suburban train line from İzmir makes it easy to get to Torbalı. You can get a taxi to Yeniköy and the ruins from the highway.
Buses to Torbalı leave from the upper level of İzmir otogar. You could easily incorporate a visit to Metropolis with one to the pleasant market town of Bayındır just up the road. Tire buses from İzmir also pass through Torbalı.
