Guide

The ancient city of Apollonia and the mound of Medet lie within the village of Medet, seven kilometres west of Tavas, on flat plain. Founded on the most fertile land of the Tavas plain, Apollonia had roads west by way of Tabae into Caria, south by way of Sebastopolis into Lycia, and east by way of Tavas toward Lycia and Phrygia.

No firm evidence has been found for the founding of the city. The finds from the mound show, however, that the first settlement reaches back to the Bronze Age and continued without a break.

The city appears to have taken the name Apollonia in the Hellenistic period and to have seen its most splendid days under Rome. The foundations of a temple of Apollo of the reign of Hadrian, and inscriptions, have come down to us.

Between the first century BC and the first century AD the city struck coins in its own name, and those coins carry the images of gods.