Priene Ancient City

Ancient City

Terraced at the foot of Mount Mykale — the textbook example of ancient urban planning, its Athena Temple columns rising among the pines.

Built on terraces on the steep slope of Mount Mykale, commanding the Great Meander plain, Priene is the ancient world’s best-preserved example of a “planned city.” It was laid out on the grid plan associated with the architect Hippodamus: streets crossing at right angles, equal insula blocks, and public buildings whose places were fixed in advance… This order shows the origins of modern urban planning and makes Priene invaluable to archaeologists.

At the city’s heart rise the elegant Ionic columns of the Temple of Athena Polias among the pines; a votive inscription found here records that Alexander the Great himself funded its costs. On the slope, the superbly preserved theatre — with its rows of stone seats and front-row seats of honour — looks almost as if abandoned yesterday; the bouleuterion (council house), agora, gymnasion and houses can also be explored. Once a harbour city, Priene was left far from the sea by the alluvium of the Meander — just like Miletus and Herakleia. With Miletus and Didyma it completes the classic “three ancient cities” route.