Iassos - Island in the Sun

November 12, 2023

Iassos - Island in the Sun

Grilled prawns and sea bream, fresh bread and olive oil, and wine. It's what's for dinner in ancient Iassos! But more on that later.

Exhilarating. Enormous. Exhausting. Three words that perfectly describe our experience at Iassos (also spelled Iasos). Sometimes bigger is better, but bigger often comes with a price, and this is one of those times.

To begin with, Iassos is a VERY ancient city, going back at least to the bronze age around 1900 B.C. It was ruled by the usual cast of empires in this part of the ancient world, including the Carians ("People Living in the Sun"), Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines and Ottomans. But what makes Iassos really unique is the size, and the spectacular sea views all around it.

The island of Iassos is actually no longer an island, although it was in ancient times. The narrow channel between the island and mainland has silted over during the centuries and joined the two - creating a convenient way to access the site.

Iassos is about an hour and a half very pleasant drive from our home. As we walked into the site, the first thing we noticed was the absence of ANYone else. There are many advantages to living here year-round, and picking and choosing the best times to explore cool places is one of them. We had the entire site to ourselves.

The next thing we noticed was that we were going to be doing some serious walking and climbing. Fortunately the conditions were perfect. A slightly cloudy, slightly windy 70 degree day, we packed lots of water and wore comfy hiking shoes.

A panoramic video of what greets the visitor upon entering

The Acropolis sits high atop the hill

The first structure we encountered is the theater. It is small, therefore a Bouleuterion, but beautifully preserved. This was followed by the Agora, or market place, also well-preserved.

Ready for the show! Well-preserved columns

The Agora - many parts still showing the doorways of the individual shops.

Iassos was famous in ancient times for it's beautifully colored marble,

some of which was used in the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (Istanbul)

So far, my friends, this probably looks like a lot of other sites we have visited so far. True. But as previously noted, this place is big, and the climbing has just begun!

One of the attractive qualities of this site (to me) is that it really doesn't look like a tourist site. To get around, you basically follow poorly marked trails that I am pretty sure are made by the local population of wild boars, based on droppings and rooted-up earth.

So, we wandered! Occasionally we hit dead-ends, and occasionally we would come to a lonely sign explaining what we were looking at. We climbed and explored, crossed narrow ravines and rocky ledges, and eventually wound our way to the top, where sits the Acropolis.

This wall and a portion of the amphitheater just popped up in front of us

The walls of the Acropolis, as seen from the site

of a basilica built later by the Byzantines in the 6th century A.D.

Fishing boat through the wall Olive trees were everywhere

What we were really hunting for were the fabled mosaics of Iassos, which according to our information, could be found somewhere inside the Acropolis. Sadly, we never found them, and I am led to believe they must have been recently removed and relocated, although I am still researching that. Many if not most of the valuable pieces have been moved to the Izmir Archaeological Museum.

My teammates and I finally reached the Acropolis

What a view!

So... exhausted, sore, and covered with burrs (especially Molly) we headed back down the mountain and into the nearby seaside village of Kıyıkışlacık. We found a charming, rustic restaurant on the water with a perfect view of Iassos and ordered - you guessed it - grilled fresh prawns and sea bream, bread, olive oil and wine. It turns out that we sometimes do learn from history and, thankfully, some of the best things never change.