Assos (Behramkale)... Assos was originally founded by Aeolian colonists from Lesbos in the 7th century BC. In the 6th century BC it came under the rule of the Lydians and with their defeat at the hands of the Persians in 546 BC, the city came under Persian rule. Ariobarzanes, the Persian governor who rebelled against King Artaxerxes was defeated at Assos in 365 BC and he was replaced by Euboulos, a prominent banker. He was succeeded by the eunuch Hermias, one of Plato's students and it was because of this association that Hermias's friend Aristotle stayed with him for three years at Assos (348 - 345 BC). In 334 BC Assos was taken by Alexander, and the city was part of the Pergamon kingdom from 241 to 133 BC after which it came under Roman rule. Assos was ruled by Byzantium after 395 AD. During this period it was known as Makhram. (It is believed that "Behramkale", the name of the village above Assos, is derived from this.) Assos became an Ottoman possession during the reign of Murad I (1359 - 1389). The acropolis was defended by a double wall. The inner walls appear to have been repaired in Medieval and Ottoman times and have been restored. Beside them is a mosque built during the reign of Murad I. The bridge below, which is no longer usable, was also built in the 14th century. The Temple of Athena was built on a site with a magnificent view overlooking the sea at a height of 238 meters. At present only a few of the temple's columns are standing but restoration work is in progress. The temple was built some time around 530 BC. It is constructed of andesite rather than marble and has 6 by 13 columns and measure 14 by 30 meters in size. The acropolis is surrounded by a wall three kilometers in length. These walls are skillfully constructed of stone and reach 20 meters in height in some places. There are two big gates, one on the west and another on the east, as well as seven smaller gates. The walls were reinforced with numerous towers and were built in 365 BC (the polygonal walls we see here and there predate the 4th century however.) We shall begin our tour of the city proper by entering through the main gate on the west. Just outside the western gate is a necropolis containing tombs from Hellenistic and Roman times. The arched structure here is the monumental tomb of Publius Varius. Entering through the gate we see the defensive towers located on either side. On the left side after entering the gate is the Assos gymnasium. Measuring 32 by 40 meters, this gymnasium is the form of a courtyard surrounded on four sides by colonnades.

On the northern side of the courtyard is a cistern. The gymnasium is a work of the 2^nd century BC. A bit beyond this one comes to the Assos agora located on a terrace the foot of the acropolis. Its northern boundary is a double - story Doric - order stoa measuring 111.52 m long and 12.42 m wide. (The holes that one sees in the rear wall of the stoa are where the beams supporting the upper story were once set). The stoa on the southern side had three stories but owing to the slope of the terrain, the top floor was built on a level with the first floor of the northern stoa. The middle floor and basement opened only to the south while the top floor provided a view of both the agora and the sea. This was undoubtedly a favorite promenade place for the inhabitants. The middle story contained thirteen shops while in the basement there were two cisterns and thirteen bathrooms. Between the two stoas on the western side of the agora there were Hellenistic - period shops and next to them a temple built in the 2^nd century BC. Below the agora is the Assos theater. Originally built in 3^rd century BC, it was altered in Roman times and is now in ruins.

Ancient harbor City...

Assos was an ancient harbor city which was also famed due to the stay of the philosopher Aristotle for three years as the head of a philosophy school. The Stoic philosopher Cleanthes was from Assos too. Lesbos Island in the Aegean Sea can be seen from here on clear days. Though it is not visited by many foreigners Assos is well known and has many of its archeological finds exhibited in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Louvre in Paris and the Museum of Archeology in Istanbul. With its natural appearance and exotic atmosphere rather than its historical background, Assos has recently become very popular among Turkish people.

History of Assos...

Mythologically, Assos was the capital of the Lelegians before the arrival of Aeolians who colonized Assos and made it their harbor in c. 1000 BC. As with all other cities in western Anatolia, Assos went through the Lydian, Persian, Alexander the Great, Pergamene, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods. Notably in the 4C BC Assos was ruled by Hermias, one of Plato's students and a despot, who came to be known as the Tyrant of Atarneus. In order to establish a Platonic state there, Hermias invited a number of scholars among which was Aristotle, who married the Tyrant's niece. During the Persian conquest Hermias was executed and Aristotle had to leave Assos for Lesbos. On his missionary journeys, Paul sailed from Assos. His visit to the harbor city of Assos strengthened the early Christian colony there.

Cleanthes (331 - 232 BC)...

He was a Stoic philosopher who proposed a form of materialistic Pantheism. He was one of the first philosophers to maintain that the sun was the central body in the cosmos. This concept was revived in the 16C by Copernicus. Cleanthes proclaimed that the universe and God, or the vivifying ether of the universe, are ultimately one and the same.

Site...

It consists of an acropolis with an inner defensive wall, a lower town with an outer wall, a harbor below the lower town and a necropolis outside. At the center of the acropolis in the inner walls was a 6C BC Doric Temple of Athena with Ionic influences. It is an andesite temple in antis with 13 by 6 columns. Five of its Doric columns are standing today. The Temple of Athena is the only surviving example of Doric architecture in Anatolia. With some materials from the temple and other buildings an Ottoman mosque was built in the 14C. The cross in relief and an inscription in Greek show that either the stones were taken from a nearby Byzantine church or the building was converted into a mosque from a church. The dome has a diameter of 11 m / 36 ft. The other remains are from the Hellenistic period and scattered below the acropolis facing the sea, among which are an agora, a gymnasium, a small temple, a theater and a bouleterion. The necropolis was outside the city and contained many sarcophagi made of local Assos stone. This stone was very appropriate as it accelerated the decomposition of the flesh. The word sarcophagus derives from the local stone of Assos. Below the acropolis to the north a 14C AD Ottoman Harpusta Bridge can be seen which crosses the Tuzla stream.