ALINDA
(Karpuzlu, formerly Demircideresi) Caria,
Turkey.
Apparently a member of the Delian Confederacy, but for only a few years. The elder Ada, expelled from Halikarnassos by her brother Pixodaros
about 340 B.C., retired to Alinda; when Alexander arrived in 334, she offered to surrender the city to him
and to adopt him as her son, asking in return to be restored to her throne. Alexander responded favorably, and
after the capture of Halikarnassos appointed her queen
of Caria (Strab. 657; Arr. 1.23.8). Arrian describes
Alinda as “a place among the strongest in Caria.” It is
probable that the city soon afterwards took the name of
Alexandria by Latmos; a place of this name, otherwise
unrecorded, is mentioned by Stephanos of Byzantium,
who says it possessed a sanctuary of Adonis with an
Aphrodite by Praxiteles. By 81 B.C. at the latest, the old
name had been revived (
OGIS 441). The coinage extended from the 3d c. B.C. to the 3d c. A.D. A bishopric
of Alinda is recorded in the Byzantine lists.
The site at Karpuzlu is identified by coins found there.
It answers well to Arrian's description. The city wall, in
good ashlar, is well preserved on the hill. Arrian's words
suggest that it was standing in 334 B.C., and it is likely
that it was built by Mausolos. Near the top of the hill
a fine tower in two stories is still almost complete.
The outstanding feature of the ruins is a superb market building, over 90 m long and 15 m high. It is in three
stories, of which the lower two are preserved entire. The
first story consists of pairs of chambers, one behind the
other, evidently used as shops; they open to the S on a
narrow terrace partly rock-cut, partly supported by
masonry. The second story is divided down its whole
length by a row of double half-columns; it seems to have
formed a single long gallery, lighted by a large window
at the W end, with no division into rooms. Narrow slits
in the front wall afforded additional lighting. The top
story was on a level with the agora, which adjoins it on
the N and was accessible from it. Here too a row of columns ran lengthwise down the middle; a few stumps only
are preserved, and of the walls only a part at the W end.
The agora is an empty level space some 90 by 30 m; of
its surrounding stoa practically nothing now remains.
The theater is also in excellent preservation. Contrary
to Vitruvius' rule, it faces SW. The retaining wall of the
cavea, and the analemmata, are in handsome ashlar
masonry of Hellenistic date; an arched entrance leads to
the diazoma on either side. The stage building was reconstructed in Roman times by merely extending the
stage towards the orchestra; the building has collapsed,
but its front wall is discernible. Of the stage itself the
lower part is buried; the upper part is unusually well preserved. It is supported on plain pilasters carrying stone
paving-blocks of which a number are still in place; it
projects 5.1 m from the stage building.
At the summit of the hill are two foundations, one
circular, over 15 m in diameter and of unknown purpose, the other apparently a small temple.
On the hill immediately to the SW is the second acropolis similarly fortified by ashlar masonry with towers,
enclosing an area some 227 m in length. It seems to have
been residential only, and is covered with remains of
houses; just inside the wall is a row of six cisterns thickly coated with plaster still showing traces of red color.
Adjoining on the S at a much lower level is a similar
enclosure entered by a gate.
In the dip beyond this second acropolis, a stretch of
an aqueduct is standing almost complete. Four arches
are preserved, and a solid wall pierced by a gate 1.8 m
wide. Over the arches is the water channel, with some
of its covering stones still in position.
Tombs are numerous and of various kinds, some sarcophagi, many of “Carian” type, and some built tombs
now converted to modern houses. None of them is inscribed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Fellows,
Lycia (1841) 58-64; E.
Fabricius in
Altertümer von Aegae (1889) 27-30; E. Hula
& E. Szanto in
SBWien 132 (1895) Abh. 2,2-3; W. R.
Paton & J. Myres in
JHS 16 (1896) 238-42;
ATL I (1939)
467-68; G. E. Bean,
Turkey beyond the Maeander (1971)
ch. 16
MI.
G. E. BEAN