Skip to main content

Ancient Apollonia ad Rhyndacum

Dusk at Lake Uluabat Bursa
Dusk at Lake Uluabat Bursa, originally uploaded by voyageAnatolia.

Dusk at ancient Lake Apolloniatis at ancient Apollonia ad Rhyndacum, Gölyazı, Bursa.

Apollonia (Ἀπολλωνία) was an ancient town astride the Rhyndacus river at Bithynia. According to Strabo, it lay in Mysia (Ἀ. ἐπὶ Ῥυνδακῷ), a description which misled some travellers and geographers, who fixed the site at Ulubat on the Rhyndacus. However, the site is actually modern Apolyont. This site is on the lake now known as Lake Apolyont or Uluabat Gölü. In ancient times this lake was called Apolloniatis (for instance by Strabo), after the town.

Some high land advances into the lake, and forms a narrow promontory, off the southwest point of which is an island with the town of Abullionte. (Hamilton, Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 87.) The remains of Apollonia are inconsiderable. The Rhyndacus flows into the lake Apolloniatis, and issues from it a deep and muddy river. The lake extends from east to west, and is studded with many islands in the northeast part, on one of which is the town of Apollonia. The circuit of the lake is estimated by some travellers at about 50 miles, and its length about 10; but the dimensions vary considerably, for in winter the waters are much higher. It abounds in fish.

Popular posts from this blog

Hattians - First Civilizations in Anatolia

The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in Asia Minor in the 3rd to 2nd millennia BC. They spoke a non-Indo-European language of uncertain affiliation called Hattic (now believed by some to be related to the Northwest Caucasian language group). They eventually merged with or were replaced by the Hittites, who spoke the Indo-European Hittite language.

Early Neolithic site in southeastern Turkey dated to 11000 years ago: Göbekli Tepe, Urfa

Göbekli Tepe is an early Neolithic site in Urfa, southeastern Turkey. It is famous for containing the world's oldest known stone temples (dated to before 9000 BC), and because it contradicts the long-held belief that the introduction of agriculture preceded the construction of large buildings. Göbekli Tepe was created by hunter-gatherers, yet is assumed to be a key location for understanding the origins of agriculture. (To give a timescale, remember that Stonehenge, a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles north of Salisbury, was erected between 2500 BC and 2000 BC although the surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC.)

Etruscans: Anatolian Italians?

The Etruscan civilization is the name given today to the culture and way of life of people of ancient Italy whom ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci. The ancient Greeks' word for them was Tyrrhenoi, or Tyrrsenoi. The Etruscans themselves used the term Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Raśna.