Maritime Culture The Bay of Miletus and the
Latmicus Sinus
The fertile Plains of the
Menderes, or the Meandros form the northern borders of Caria. For a
mariner one of the many fascinations lies in the fact that these plains
have formed only relatively recently and continue to be formed: Their
extension into the Aegean increase by several meters per annum. So here
we have the chance to travel over sea, or to be more precise, over what
used to be the sea, by foot, by bike or by another land vehicle.
Where there was the Aegean today mostly cotton
fields and marsh reeds prevail and tell us of a story, still relatively
fresh in the memory of mankind. "Köprünün gerisindeki yol denize iniyor"
tells me the farmer at Köprüalan - and points towards the Bafa Lake! "Yol
denize iniyor" - "This road leads to the sea". Only a sloppy expression?
Or a memory of generations? Well, this may be only a coincidence, but
how about the eels in the Lake of Bafa, at Kapkiri, the town which used
to be Herakleia and used to produce many a fine triremes for the Ionian
fleet? How do these eels get into the Bafa lake? If mankind has a short
memory, the eels certainly remember their origin.
The Latmian Golf. Mostly a lie, mostly the truth.
Not existing - but in the memories and in the phantasy.
In the following page I have taken a few
references from Antique texts and have them displayed with some recent
pictures.
The
once Milesian Bay, today's Söke Ovasi, The fertile Plains
of the Menderes
Engraving
from Comte de Choiseul-Gouffier, Voyage pittoresque d la Grece
Marshes
near Mt. Mykale, at the Karina Gölü. Even at our times
the River Meandros gains several meters each years against the
open sea.
"Islands
which have been united to the main land: Again, islands are
taken from the sea and added to the main land; Antissa to
Lesbos, Zephyrium to Halicarnassus, Aethusa to Myndus, Dromiscus
and Perne to Miletus, (...)"
The
lagoon Karina
Pliny the Elder, Book II, 91.89
"[1]The
Ionians then came there with their ships manned, and with
them the Aeolians who dwell in Lesbos.
This was their order of battle:
The Milesians themselves had the eastern wing, bringing eighty
ships; next to them were the Prieneans with twelve ships,
and the Myesians with three; next to the Myesians were the
Teians with seventeen ships; next to these the Chians with
a hundred; near these in the line were the Erythraeans, bringing
eight ships, and the Phocaeans with three, and next to these
the Lesbians with seventy; last of all in the line were the
Samians, holding the western wing with sixty ships.
[2] The total number of all these together was three hundred
and fifty-three triremes."
(Describing
of the Seabattle of Lade)
Herodotus,
6.8.1-2
"(...)
and then, having by now become a large river, the Maeander
flows for a time through Phrygia and then forms the boundary
between Caria and Lydia at the Plain of Maeander, as it is
called, where its course is so exceedingly winding that everything
winding is called "meandering." And at last it flows through
Caria itself, which is now occupied by the Ionians, and then
empties between Miletus and Priene. It rises in a hill called
Celaenae, on which there is a city which hears the same name
as the hill; and it was from Celaenae that Antiochus Soter
made the inhabitants move to the present Apameia, the city
which he named after his mother Apama, who was the daughter
of Artabazus and was given in marriage to Seleucus Nicator.
And here is laid the scene of the myth of Olympus and of Marsyas
and of the contest between Marsyas and Apollo. Above is situated
a lake which produces the reed that is suitable for the mouth-pieces
of pipes; and it is from this lake that pour the sources of
both the Marsyas (todays Çine Çayi) and the
Maeander."
Strabo
12.8.1
[17]
(...) In fact, the soil is not only friable and crumbly but
is also full of salts and easy to burn out. And perhaps the
Maeander is winding for this reason, because the stream often
changes its course and, carrying down much silt, adds the
silt at different times to different parts of the shore; however,
it forcibly thrusts a part of the silt out to the high sea.
And, in fact, by its deposits of silt, extending forty stadia,
it has made Priene, which in earlier times was on the sea,
an inland city.
(Today we know that the meandering
of rivers is caused by the Coriolis force of the turning globe)
Strabo
12.8.17
Please move
the mouse over the picture to see the layers.
"(...) that the
Maeander, flowing through the land of
the Phrygians and Carians, which is
ploughed up each year, has turned to
mainland in a short time the sea that
once was between Priene and Miletus."
