APHRODİSİAS AYDIN / TURKEY

In 1958, Ara Güler who went to the Geyre town of Aydın as a journalist for the opening of a dam and lost his way on the way back, passes through a village and sees the villagers living in touch with history. Roman columns and architectural pieces are still used by people living in the village. All kinds of architectural structures in the village also contain works from the Roman period. Even historical sarcophagi are used to filter grape must and every part of the village is full of historical artifacts. After looking at these beautiful structures in amazement, Ara Güler takes dozens of photographs from various parts of the village and begins to research this region after returning to Istanbul. But he cannot access any information. Realizing that no one knows about this place, Güler sends the photographs he took to various organizations, but does not receive the attention he expected. Finally, he sends the photos to the Times. The Times asked him to take color photographs, and Ara Güler went to the same village again and took color photographs. The photographs distributed to the world press in this way suddenly create a great impact. When archaeologists from America started to do research in Geyre, they realized that this was the ancient city of Aphrodisias, which belonged to the Roman Empire, dates back to 500 BC and was named after the goddess Aphrodite.