Pessinus Antik Kenti

The ancient city of Pessinus lies in the village of Ballıhisar, on the Ankara to Eskişehir highway, about 13 kilometres south of Sivrihisar. The present village was built on top of the ruins of the ancient city. According to English Wikipedia, the settlement lies at about 950 metres above sea level in one of the side valleys feeding the Sakarya River. The city stood on the old Royal Road. The Culture Portal writes that this road was also used in the Roman and Byzantine periods because it was safe and short. In antiquity, Pessinus was known as the Phrygian city most closely associated with the Mother Goddess Cybele. The founding of the city is told in two different ways, between legend and archaeology. According to the Culture Portal, ancient writers say the city was founded in the 8th century BC by the semi legendary Phrygian king Midas. Wikipedia, however, reports that the excavations carried out since 1967 show the city developed around 400 BC at the earliest. According to ancient tradition, the city held a black stone believed to have fallen from the sky. During the war against Carthage in 204 BC the Romans took this stone to Rome and called it Magna Mater, the Great Mother. This event is the most famous story that carried the name of Pessinus across the Mediterranean world. The geographer Strabo also describes Pessinus as the largest trading place west of the Kızılırmak. The city lived its most splendid period in the age of the Roman Empire. According to the Culture Portal, the great temple whose construction began after the death of Augustus was completed under Tiberius. Wikipedia, reporting the research of Ghent University, writes that the temple dates to between AD 25 and 35 and was a Corinthian building surrounded by columns. According to the same research, this temple was not a temple of Cybele, as Charles Texier believed when he found its foundations in 1834, but a temple of the imperial cult. Today only the massive foundations of the temple remain. In front of the temple there is a theatre like structure with a monumental staircase in the middle and rows of seats for spectators opening on either side. The building stone of the city was brought from the İstiklalbağı marble quarries, about 6 kilometres to the north. The most impressive engineering work at Pessinus is the canal built to hold and drain the seasonal Gallos stream that runs through the middle of the city. According to Wikipedia, the first part of the canal dates from the reign of Augustus. Continuously enlarged between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the canal finally reached a length of about 500 metres and a width of 11 to 13 metres. The colonnaded square below the temple, by contrast, has been shown to date from before Rome, to the Hellenistic period. The Culture Portal also notes that in the Hellenistic age the temple was repaired and a council house, a stoa, a canal, a theatre and roads were built. In the Roman period the city became the administrative centre of the Tolistobogii tribe of the Galatians. Excavations were started in 1967 by Ghent University in Belgium and continued at intervals until 2008. After 2009 the excavations were carried out by the University of Melbourne in Australia. This work uncovered, besides the temple, workshops, houses and structures such as a theatre, an agora and a council house, as well as road remains near the city. According to the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, an open air museum was set up in the village in 1988 with the support of the Eskişehir Governorship and the contribution of the Eskişehir Archaeology Museum. Some of the stone works found in the excavations are displayed in the garden of this museum, while smaller pieces are shown in a single storey building. Other finds are in the archaeology museum in Eskişehir. When you arrive in Ballıhisar, first look at the inscribed stones and architectural fragments in the garden of the open air museum; they help you grasp the scale of the city. Then walk to the temple area in the southern part of the village and look out over the valley from the top of the dressed stone foundations. Tracing the line of the canal along the stream bed is the walk that best explains how the city was laid out. Since the remains are scattered among the village houses, explore with respect for village life and without entering fields and gardens. Since the remains are seen in the open, choose the morning hours in summer. Thanks to its closeness to Sivrihisar, Pessinus can be visited on the same day as the district centre. Visiting hours and entry conditions may change, so check the current information on the page of the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism.