Miletus
Miletus, an ancient city located near the present Akkoy at the mouth of
the Buyuk Menderes (Meander) River, owed its importance to its position
on trade routes. It was one of the largest cities in Anatolia with a population
of between 80,000 and 100,000. Highly prosperous, it founded many colonies
and was the home of the 6C BC philosophers Anaximander, Anaximenes, and
Thales, the town planner Hippodamus and architect Isidorus. Miletus seems
to have produced geniuses the way Aphrodisias produced sculptors.
