Aphrodisias
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Aphrodisias, 2017), Inscribed With Its Marble Quarries; Roman City And Centre Of A School Of Sculpture · Karacasu, Aydin
Aphrodisias had marble quarries on its doorstep and turned them into an industry: a school of sculpture whose work was exported across the Roman empire and whose sculptors signed their pieces, which is why their names turn up on statues in Rome. The city that grew on the back of it is the best-preserved classical site in Turkiye after Ephesus and gets a small fraction of the visitors, because it sits inland in a valley two hours from anywhere on the coast. The stadium is the reason to come: two hundred and seventy metres long, seating for around thirty thousand, and the best preserved in the ancient world by a wide margin - you walk into it and it is simply intact. Add the re-erected Tetrapylon gateway, the Temple of Aphrodite that was turned into a church, and a museum holding the Sebasteion reliefs, and the case for the detour makes itself. Go on a weekday in spring and you may have a 30,000-seat stadium entirely to yourself.
Geyre Mahallesi, Afrodisias Oren Yeri, Karacasu, Karacasu, Aydin, Turkiye
Open daily with longer summer hours and an earlier winter close. A tractor-drawn trailer has run between the car park and the site entrance, which is a local quirk rather than a service you can count on. The on-site museum keeps the same hours as the ruins. Excavation seasons close sections. Check before travelling.