PESSINUS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

It is located in Ballıhisar Village, 13 kilometers southwest of Sivrihisar District. Excavations in the city were started by Professor Doctor Pierre Lambrechts on behalf of the Belgian Ghent University in 1967-1973, Professor Doctor J. Devreker between 1987 and 2008 and Professor Doctor Gocha R. Tsetskhladze from the University of Melbourne, Australia between 2009 and 2013.

The city lived its most glorious period during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus (27 BC - 14 A.D). In addition to the magnificent temple, which was started to be built after the death of Augustus and completed during the reign of Emperor Tiberius (14-37 A.D), different planned structures, workshops, houses and a church belonging to the Christian Period were unearthed. In the area where the temple is located, there are Ladder Theater, Bouleuterion (193-235 A.D), Agora (Portico Square-41-54 A.D), and columned street. There is also an 8000-seat Theater, which was built on the slope of the hill to the east of the city during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117-138 A.D) and only a few rows of seating are visible today. The most impressive public structure of the Early Imperial Period is the 7-step canal system dated to the Augustan Period. It was built with a width of 141-13 meters in order to collect and carry the waters of the Gallos River, which passes through the Pessinus from the east-west direction, and it was continuously extended from the 1st century to the 3rd century A.D and reached a length of 500 meters.

Pessinus of Phrygian origin, which was an important Galatia city during the Roman Imperial Period, started to lose its importance in the 9th century A.D and was completely abandoned after a few centuries. The artifacts unearthed from the excavation are exhibited in the open air exhibition in Ballıhisar Village and in our museum.