MELLI
(“Milyas”) Turkey.
City in Pisidia,
20 km SE of Bucak. Milyas is recorded only by Ptolemy,
who places it in Pamphylia, subsection Kabalia; some
scholars have doubted whether it really existed. The location at Melli depends solely on the similarity of name.
The ruins lie on a hill ca. 1.6 km SE of the village.
The circuit wall of coursed polygonal masonry is fairly
well preserved and probably of early Hellenistic date. On
the NE is a theater; the rows of seats, partly cut in the
rock wall, are few for the size of the caven. The stage
building has collapsed; behind it is a long narrow building still 6 m high, with regular courses of bossed ashlar
and seven doors in its outer face. The N slope is covered
with a mass of stones from ruined buildings, including
a number with inscriptions. On the adjoining hill to the
NW is a handsome rock-cut monument reminiscent of
early monuments in Phrygia; it is probably a cult facade
rather than a tomb. It carries no inscription.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. Bérard,
BCH 16 (1892) 434ff; G.
E. Bean,
AnatSt 10 (1960) 76-80.
G. E. BEAN
