Route Ephesus - Miletus

Discuss the culture of Alexander's world and his image in art

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chris_taylor
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Route Ephesus - Miletus

Post by chris_taylor »

Still plotting a trip through Turkey in Alexander's footsteps next year (assuming that the war isn't going to spread).

For the section Sardis - Ephesus, I'm going with Engel's suggestion that Alexander went across Mr Tmolus, following a branch of the Royal Road. Personally, I think that's unlikely, but that's a different matter.

I'm now stuck again with something I really didn't expect to be an issue: I can't find the course of the ancient road between Ephesus and Miletus. Agesilaos posted this link to a map of ancient Roman roads (many thanks for that, it's an *excellent* resource).

http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/

It shows a road from the north into Miletus, from Skolopoeis, crossing the Meander valley. However, in Alexander's time, that route didn't exist because the mouth of the Meander was too far in land. Chart 8 on this article shows how the Meander silted up over the last 3000 years:

http://www.landschaftsmarketing-geotour ... ueste.html

Nor was there a road along the south-eastern shore of the Meander river, connecting Phyrra with Miletus: what is now Lake Bafu was still Latmos Bay, a gulf of the Aegean.

So to get to Miletus, Alexander had to take his army either all around the bay, or across the mountains.

Strabo implies there was a road that led all around Latmus bay, about 200 stades in total. But looking at the topography, that must have been a donkey path, and a very tortuous one at that. On the northern shore, near Phyrra, the mountains are rugged and drop almost vertically into the lake.

And the route across the mountains into Herakleia (from where the road along the southern shore of Latmus Bay seemed to have been easier) is even more difficult. Google doesn't know of one, even today.

So how did he do it?
All men by nature desire understanding. Aristotle.
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