Büyük Menderes River

View of Priene on the level of the Great Meander

The meander ( from the Greek Μαίανδρος ), today Big Meander ( Büyük Menderes türk ) called to distinguish it from small meander, the ancient Kaystros, a river in western Asia Minor (modern Turkey ), which because of its many turns ( meander ) is literally has become. With 550 km in length, it is the principal river of western Anatolian region.

The Great Meander rises in the mountains of Phrygia, about halfway between the provincial capitals Usak and Afyon. The two largest rivers are the source Banaz and the Kufi, the southern tributary originates in dinars, the ancient Kelainai. After their union north of the city of Denizli the Great Meander flows west direction Aydın and flows near the ancient city of Miletus in the Aegean Sea.

In the coastal plain, which has widened since the Greek Ionian time through the alluvial sediments at a few kilometers from the sea about 15 km of the estuary are the north and south to visit the remains of cities and temples Priene and Didyma. Between Soke and Aydin, in the ancient Magnesia, located upriver at Sultanhisar the remains of the ancient Nysa. The Lake Bafa, whose runoff flows about 15 km as the crow before its confluence with the meanders until the 4th century AD was an estuary.