Kütahya Aizanoi Archaeological Site

Aizanoi Ruins

The Ancient City of Aizanoi is currently located in Inner Western Anatolia, on the borders of the district of Çavdarhisar, located 48 km southwest of the province of Kütahya, on the plateau of the Örencik Plain. Aizanoi, which Strabo named among the cities of the Phrygian Epictetus, is 40 kilometers southwest of Kotiaeion (Kütahya); 25 kilometers northeast of Kadoi (Gediz); It is located approximately 40 kilometers northwest of Appia (Altıntaş), on the Penkalas (Kocaçay) branch of the Rhyndakos (Orhaneli) Stream.

Until recently, thanks to research and excavations carried out around the temple of Zeus, the history of Aizanoi dates back to 3 B.C. it dates back a thousand years. Until Aizanoi came under Roman rule, it came to the fore politically for the first time during the struggle between the kingdoms of Pergamon and Bithynia. For the Kingdom of Bithynia, which wants to expand south, Aizanoi is at a strategic point, and the kingdom wants to have it here. Attalos I (216-213 B.C) won the struggle between Pergamon and Bithynia Kingdoms and Aizanoi was included in the Pergamon Kingdom. During the accession of Eumenes the Second to the throne in 197 BC, the Kingdom of Pergamon experienced serious internal turmoil and this was a positive development for Bithynia. Thus, at the beginning of the second century B.C,  Bithynia King Prusias I added Phrygia Epictetus to the territory of Bithynia.

After the Peace of Apameia was made in 183 BC, the hostilities between Pergamon and Bithynia ended thanks to the mediation of the Roman Empire, and Aizanoi was again given control of Pergamon under the rule of Eumenes. This situation continued until the Pergamon Kingdom of the Roman Empire transformed its territory into the Province of Asia in 129 B.C.

During the Roman Imperial Period, it is seen that Aizanoi came to the fore in a socio-political sense with its temple-city status and admission to the Panhellenic Union. In addition, the reconstruction activities in Anatolia, especially during the Reign of Hadrian, also manifest themselves in Aizanoi, and during this period the repair or construction of many public buildings, including the temple of Zeus, took place

Aizanoi Temple of Zeus

With the material brought from the marble quarries located near Aizanoi, its construction began in January 92 BC and its construction lasted until the Hadrian Period. The temple is built on a podium measuring 53x35m. Pseudodipteros is planned, ionic order, 8x15 columns. Aizanoi Zeus temple is the best preserved of the Zeus temples in Anatolia.

The temple was the owner of the lands located in and around the city. During the reign of Hadrian, the most fundamental problem between Aizanoi and Rome was the management of the lands belonging to the city. We obtain very clear and detailed information about these lands, which are thought to be connected to the temple of Zeus, from epigraphic sources. Four of them are inscriptions printed by official authorities and located on the temple, all inscriptions are dated to the Hadrian period. These inscriptions we see on the walls of the temple cover a group of correspondence between Rome and Aizanoi during the administration of the temple lands in Aizanoi.

Aizanoi became a part of the Germiyanoğulları Principality whose center was Kütahya and which flourished in the  last quarter of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th century. The Rye tribe from the Tatar tribe settled here during the principalities and used the ruined temple as a fortress. During this period, there are more than three hundred figures of rye Tatars, horsemen, qopuz players, lovers, and animal figures on the walls of the temple.