Some Ruined Cities of Asia MInor 



857 



There is still much to be excavated at 

 Miletus. The work is in good hands, 

 and in a few years Mr Theodore Wie- 

 gand, working in behalf of the Berlin 

 Museum, will have laid bare the entire 

 city. 



PRIENE 



Priene, thanks to the industry and en- 

 ergy of the Germans, is now completely 

 excavated, something like eighty rectan- 

 gular squares having been brought to the 

 light of day. As the visitor at Pompeii 

 sees before him an almost perfect Roman 

 provincial town of the time of Pliny, so 

 at Priene one is enabled to look at an 

 Ionic city of the days of Alexander. The 

 Germans have completed a wonderful 

 work at Priene. The same thoroughness 

 and workmanship with which they build 

 a ship may clearly be seen in the skillful 

 manner in which this city was brought to 

 the light of day. 



The chief interest in Priene is to be 

 found in the private houses, which date 

 from the fourth century B. C. The most 

 of these houses show that they were occu- 

 pied by people accustomed to luxury and 

 art. There was a courtyard in the mid- 

 dle, as in most of the houses in the Orient 

 today, upon which opened halls and 

 chambers. In some of them were several 

 sleeping rooms, and many had a second 

 story. The walls of the first story in 

 many houses are still standing, and deco- 

 rations of various kinds may still be seen. 

 Some idea will be given of the size of 

 many houses when I state that they are 

 50 by 80 feet. The interior furnishings 

 were also on a scale in keeping with the 

 exterior proportions of the dwellings. 



The houses in the coast cities of Asia 

 Minor, even three thousand years ago, 

 were fitted out with the most sumptuous 

 tables, chairs, beds, and carpets. In other 

 words, Hellenic genius and love of art 

 was not only applied in rearing inimitable 

 temples and statues, but the sense of the 

 beautiful was also carried into the home. 



Priene was a great religious center, 

 and this accounts for the number and 

 beauty of the temples. 



It is not known when Priene was alto- 

 gether abandoned by its inhabitants, but 

 it is probable that the city was so thor- 

 oughly destroyed by an earthquake that 

 its citizens retired to Ephesus and 

 Smyrna. 



COLOPHON 



Colophon claimed to be the birthplace 

 of Homer. About 665 years B. C. it was 

 one of the most important cities in the 

 Ionian Union, and celebrated far and 

 wide for opulence and luxury. In 287 

 B. C. King Lysimachus removed a part 

 of the inhabitants to Ephesus. With the 

 exception of two or three wars, Colophon 

 seems to have always had a pretty peace- 

 ful time of it, and during six hundred 

 years of its history the inhabitants suc- 

 cessfully pursued the arts of commerce 

 and agriculture. 



The horses of Colophon were the most 

 noted in Asia Minor, and the forests 

 grown upon the hills above the city were 

 the special pride of the people. One 

 might almost say that so much attention 

 was paid by these people to their forests 

 that the effects of the same, in this par- 

 ticular district, are felt to this day ; for 

 of all the trees I have thus far seen in 

 the Vilayet of Smyrna there is nothing to 

 compare with the magnificent pines which 

 grow in the region of old Colophon — a 

 pitiful remnant of the vast forests which 

 must once have skirted the whole coast 

 of this country. That the climate and, 

 soil of this section are wonderfully 

 adapted to the production of timber is 

 amply demonstrated by the presence of 

 large quantities of edible mushrooms and 

 other fungi usually unknown to dry at- 

 mospheres. 



Colophon is surrounded by a great 

 wall, which was constructed from the 

 immense boulders of the surrounding 

 hills. These rocks were chiseled into 

 large squares and placed one upon the 

 other without the use of cement. None 

 of the ruins about Colophon are of 

 Roman origin. Everything visible to the 

 eye belongs to the very earliest period of 

 Colophon's history. 



