Nysa (Caria)

37.90166666666728.146666666667210Koordinaten: 37 ° 54 '6 " N, 28 ° 8' 48" E

Nysa on the Meander (Greek Νύσα; Latin Nysa ad Maeandrum ) is an ancient city in Caria (Asia Minor ), on the border of Lydia, situated about 30 km east of Aydın, about 2 km north- west of the modern village Sultanhisar (Turkey).

Nysa is situated on the northern edge of the plain of the Meander, on the mountain Vorhöhen Mesogis; the urban area is intersected north- south of a gorge.

The name is supposed to Nysa, an otherwise unknown wife of Antiochus I., back or may be more likely to Nysa, the nurse of Dionysus returned. Nysa was in ancient times as one of the places where Dionysus said to have been brought up. It is unclear whether the city was created by synoecism the place Athymbra with the two neighboring towns Athymbrada and Hydrela. Since the 3rd century BC, it was Seleucid. The name Nysa has been used since the 2nd century BC.

In imperial times Nysa was known as a center of learning, the historian Strabo grew up here around 50 BC on. From Nysa the Stoic Apollonius and Homer philologist Menecrates came. In late antiquity, Nysa was a bishopric in the Eparchia Asia.

An archaeological remains is particularly the bridge from Nysa to call, an approximately 100 m long overbuilding of the deep gorge, which acted as a substructure for the theater forecourt and is considered the second longest of its kind in the ancient world. The ancient well-preserved theater was built in late Hellenistic - frühaugusteische time and was extended in two further phases in the 2nd century AD. The scenae frons is decorated with scenes from the childhood story of Dionysus. Further, a Gerontikon ( Buleuterion ), a gymnasium, baths, agora and an imperial temporal library building have been preserved.

Its prosperity under the Empire owes the Nysa 4 km west of the pluton and nearby sanctuary of Kore in Acharaka with famous sulfur mineral springs.

In the years 1907 and 1909 the first archaeological investigations by Lieutenant Walther von Diest took place in the 1960s excavations of the Museum of İzmir in the theater and in Buleuterion, 1982-88 by the Museum of Aydın in the theater. Since 1990 digs in Nysa, a team of University of Ankara, headed by Vedat İdil. Since 2002, the Library of archaeologists from the University of Freiburg is excavated under the direction of Volker Michael Strocka.