Listed 13 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "ALANYA Town TURKEY" .
Coracesium (Korakesion), Strabo's boundary on the coast of Asia Minor
between Pamphylia and Cilicia. At Alaya, which is the site of Coracesium, begins
the mountainous coast which extends eastward to Cape Cavaliere. A mountain a little
east of Alaya, and near the coast, is marked 4800 feet high in Beaufort's map.
The promontory of Alaya (Coracesium) rises abruptly] from a low sandy isthmus,
which is separated from the mountains by a broad plain; two of its sides are cliffs
of great height, and absolutely perpendicular; and the eastern side, on which
the town is placed, is so steep that the houses seem to rest on each other: in
short, it forms a natural fortress that might be rendered impregnable; and the
numerous walls and towers prove how anxiously its former possessors laboured to
make it so. (Beaufort's Karamania, p. 172.) The bay is open to southerly winds,
the anchorage indifferent, and there is no harbour or pier. Beaufort supposes
that there may, however, have been a mole constructed here, but circumstances
prevented him from examining into that matter. The cliffs at Alaya are from 500
to 600 feet above the sea, and their perpendicular direction is continued for
60 or 70 feet below it. They are of compact white limestone, tinged by a red dross
on the outside. On the summit of the hill there are the remains of a Cyclopian
wall, and a few broken columns; but no Greek inscriptions were discovered.
Strabo's brief description of Coracesium agrees with the facts. The
natural strength of this position, a lofty and almost insulated rock, resembling
Gibraltar, will explain its historical importance. Antiochus, king of Syria, was
occupied with the siege of Coracesium when the Rhodians sent him the message which
is mentioned by Livy (xxxiii. 20). It was the only place on the Cilician coast
that had not submitted to him. The rebel Tryphon afterwards maintained himself
for some time at Coracesium. The pirates of Cilicia, against whom the Romans sent
Cn. Pompeius, kept their plunder in the strong places of the Taurus, but their
naval station was Coracesium, where with their fleet they awaited the attack of
the Roman admiral, who defeated them. (Plut. Pomp. c. 28.) In the old maps Alaya
is called Castel Ubaldo, which may possibly have been the name given to it by
the Venetians and Genoese, when in possession of this and other strongholds upon
the Caramanian coast, but there is no recollection of the name in this country
at present. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 126.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Korakesion. A very strong city of Cilicia Aspera, on the borders of Pamphylia, standing upon a steep rock, and possessing a good harbour. It was the only place in Cilicia that offered a successful resistance to Alexander the Great.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AMAXIA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Town in Pamphylia, 6 km W-NW of Alanya. Hamaxia is mentioned only
by Strabo (668) and in the Stadiasmus (208: Anaxion); Strabo calls it a katoikia
and the Stadiasmus a chorion, and it appears from the inscriptions that the place
did not attain city status before the early 3d c. B.C. Strabo places it E of Korakesion
(Alanya), the Stadiasmus to the W; it is generally agreed that the latter is in
this case the better authority.
The site is on a high hill above the village of Elikesik and is heavily
overgrown. The circuit wall, of respectable ashlar masonry but not of early date,
is preserved in large part. In the interior some remains of two temples, one of
Hermes, have been identified, also two exedras facing one another, presumably
across a street. A church has also been noted. Inscriptions are numerous, almost
without exception of the 1st-2d c. A.D. The personal names are mostly epichoric,
and Roman names are rare. The principal necropolis was on the N slope outside
the wall, and contained many built tombs.
According to Strabo Hamaxia had an anchorage on the coast, "where
the shipbuilding timber is brought down." This is perhaps to be identified
with the Aunesis recorded in the Stadiasmus, but it has not been located with
certainty.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
IOTAPI (Ancient city) TURKEY
City in Cilicia Aspera, 9 km NW of Gazipasa. Founded by Antiochos
IV of Kommagene, but otherwise unknown to history. It is listed by Ptolemy, Hierokles,
and the Notitiae, and perhaps by Pliny (HN 5.92). The name Aidap is applied solely
to the site and evidently preserves the ancient name. The ruins are on a small
promontory defended by a circuit wall and on the shore of a small bay below it
to the E; the present highway passes through the site.
Conspicuous is a double row of large honorific statue bases facing
each other across an ancient street. Numerous buildings, for the most part of
poor quality, surviving in various states of collapse, include a structure with
a number of vaulted rooms. A small stream, dry in summer, enters the bay. Above
this on the E, beside the modern road, are the foundations of a modest temple
dedicated by an inscription to Trajan. On the higher ground to the E is an extensive
necropolis; most of the tombs are of squared blocks originally covered with stucco.
They usually have a main chamber and antechamber and are in some cases enclosed
in a peribolos.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
KORAKISSION (Ancient city) TURKEY
City in Cilicia Aspera, recorded by Pseudo-Skylax in the mid 4th c.
B.C., but never a place of much importance. About 197 B.C. it successfully resisted
capture by Antiochos III, and in the mid 2d c. was used as headquarters by Diodotos
Tryphon (Strab. 668). Later it was the scene of the decisive sea battle in which
Pompey defeated the pirates, who had used the place as a major stronghold. Korakesion
and the neighboring area were presented by Antony to Cleopatra to supply timber
for shipbuilding (Strab. 669). Coinage begins under Trajan.
Very little remains of the ancient city. The walls of the citadel
erected on the great rock by Keykubad I in the 13th c. stand in part on the Hellenistic
walls, which are of regular ashlar masonry. Otherwise only scattered ancient blocks
and a few inscriptions have been found in the suburbs of AIanya.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
LAERTI (Ancient city) TURKEY
Laertes. City of Cilicia Aspera or Pamphylia, almost certainly at a site high
up on the mountain of Cebelires, 17 km E of Alanya and ca. 750 m above sea level.
The 40 inscriptions found on the spot do not name the city, but the position agrees
reasonably well with the location of Laertes in the Stadiasmus (207) as 100 stades
from Korakesion (Alanya), and Alexander Polyistor ap. Steph. Byz. s.v. speaks
of a mountain and city of Laertes. Strabo (669: the passage is confused) also
places Laertes E of Korakesion. The coinage is Imperial only, of the 2d and 3d
c., but the city is not mentioned either in Hierokles or in the Notitae.
The city lay on a shoulder of the mountain at the foot of the summit
peak, which rises some 600 m higher. It is approached by a gully from the SE;
this route is defended by two spaced towers, and by a stretch of wall where it
reaches the city. The remainder of the site seems never to have had a fortification
wall, but at the SE corner there is a good-sized fortress, below which is an underground
building consisting of three vaulted passages, perhaps a storehouse. On the N
side of the site are remains of a long paved street originally lined with numerous
statues, many of Roman emperors. On the S side of this street stood a building
approached by steps, possibly a council house; here also were numerous statues.
Farther W is an open space, perhaps an agora, bordered by a long pavement; at
the N end of this is an exedra and at the S end a large building with an apse
at its W end, comprising a complex of halls. This part of the site is covered
with ruins of houses and other buildings. The main necropolis is on the mountain
slope S of the city.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
MIKRA KIVIRA (Ancient city) TURKEY
Very probably at Guney Kalesi, about 19 km NW of Alanya, 48 km E of
Side and 11 km from the coast. Kibyra is mentioned as a city of Pamphylia by pseudo-Skylax
in the 4th c. B.C.; it is named in the Stadiasmus, and Strabo places "the
coastland of the Kibyrates" close to Side. The site has long been sought,
as the indications given by the ancient geographers are not consistent. The only
precise location is that in the Stadiasmus (§ 212-14), which places it 109 stades
E of Side, and this agrees with Strabo's indication. Coinage began in the 2d c.
B.C. but did not continue into Imperial times, and apart from a mention by Ptolemy
the city only reappears in the authorities in the 10th c. as giving its name to
the Cibyrrhaeotic thema, extending from Miletos to Seleuceia. Constantine Porphyrogenitus
(De Them. 14) calls it "a cheap and undistinguished township," and observes
that the thema was called after it by way of insult rather than praise, because
of a haughty and self-willed attitude towards the imperial commands.
The ruins at Guney Kalesi, discovered in 1964, occupy two summits
some 750 m above sea level, but are not well preserved. The city wall, of inferior
masonry, stands in part some 6 m high, but the buildings within it are utterly
ruined. The inscriptions, however, refer to a Caesareum and to games; they show
also that the city possessed civic status down to the 3d c. A.D. Beyond the city
wall to the W a third summit carries some tombs. The water supply was dependent
on cisterns, spring water being scarce.
G. E. Bean, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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