Agora

Nowadays when people want to spend time with their friends or arrange a business meeting, they book a table in a restaurant or go for a walk along the shady alleys of parks. However, it was not always like this. In ancient times, the most lively place in the city was the agora, a market square. Merchants and buyers, people of art and science, thinkers and philosophers, public and political figures gathered there. The agoras were the scene of heated debate and public speaking, celebrations and death sentences. To be brief, the agora was the most visited place in the city, where the most important events took place. In the ancient city of Smyrna on the territory of modern Izmir, the agora was also built in Roman times. It is perfectly preserved and is considered the largest one in Turkey. With an area of about 10 thousand square meters, it was founded in the 2nd century BC. The city buildings around it appeared only four centuries later, during the reign of the famous Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The ancient agora was used for its intended purpose until the Byzantine period. Today there are ruins of four stone city gates and fourteen high Corinthian columns, as well as capitals and hundreds of Ottoman tombstones. Particularly noteworthy are fragments of majestic stone statues: the goddess of harvest and fertility - Ceres and the goddess of the hunt - Diana, the god of trade - Hermes and the strong brave Hercules, the Greek god of love - Eros and the god of winemaking - Dionysus, as well as the almighty Neptune. All valuable artifacts discovered during archaeological excavations starting from the 19th century are kept in the Museum of History and Art and the Archaeological Museum of Izmir.