the work in the reign of the emperor Augustus, and the 6th-century Ethnika of Stephanus of Byzantion. According to the latter, there were ten cities called Nysa in the ancient world, but only the one in Caria was founded the Seleucid king Antiochos I (281 - 261 BC), who named it after his wife. Indeed, the name was frequently used in the Hellenistic period for female members of the various royal families, which helps toexplainthe common occurrence of the name for cities. According To Strabo, however, the origins of Nysa lie in the mythical past. He teels how three brothers, Athymbros, Athymbrados, and Hydrelos migrated from Sparta in the Poleponnese and founded three separatelittle settlements, which later joined to form the ancient city. Only Athyrambos was remembered as the founder of the new city, and it was for this reason that the place originally was called Athymbra, although it was later also known as Antiocheia. The city only became known as Nysa at the begining of the 2nd century BC, Indeed, little is known about the city's history.
Nysa minted its own coins under the Romans. The earliest type that it issued is known as the Cistophoros and dates to the period between133 and 111 BC. During the First Mithridatic War a rich citizen of Nysa called Chairemon, who had support to the Romans, was captured and put to death by the king of Pontus. It is clear that there were many such wealthy families in Nysa. For example, an individual called Pythodoros, one of Chairemon's relatives, was a close friend of both Pompey and Caesar. He later married one of the daughters of Mark Antony and had a daughter by her called Pythodoris. She become first the queen of Pontus and later the queen of Cappadocia. Strabo acknowledges that Pythodoris was a good ruler.
As has already been stated, Nysa was famous in antiquty as a centre of learning. It was here that Strabo himself received his education. The city's Gymnasium and Library, whose ruins survive to this day, from part of the complexi of building that were used for instriction. However, it was only after Strabo's death durig the Roman imperial period that the city reached the height of its prosperity and size. Although the ancient literary sources are silent about the city's history durig the first three centuries AD, we can glean some information from the surviving epigraphic evidence. The inscriptions include references to various emperors Vespasian, Hadrian, Antoninus, Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus -as well as mention of the young son of Gallienus.
The place was captured by the Seljuks in the 12th century, although shortly afterwards it was retaken by the Byzantines and remained part of their empire until finally it became part of the independent state founded as the by Mentese Beylik of Aydin. Nysa fell into a severe decline after it was sacked the forces of Timurlenk (Tamourlane) in 1402. Most of the ruins that are visible today that to the Roman and Byzantine periods.
The modern town of Sultanhisar, lying to the south of the site, was founded in the 14 th or 15 th century and quicly took the place of the ancient city.

attended was a somewhat smaller building. The present structure is Late Roman in date and seems to have suffered most damage only in fairly recent times.
The noth wall of the Gymasium, which once form the rear wall to a colonnaded chamber, no longer exists, but three arches that form part of a large ruined structure continue along the same alignment as the wall. Only the middle arch is today intact The building complex to the north of the Gymnasium, to which this arch belongs, displays a high degree of workmanship and fine stone carving. It arches are lined not with stone blocks but with radiating flat, wide bricks, while a line of square holes along the arched wall indicates that it supported beams for a wooden ceiling. The existence of an upper storey is confirmed by the presence of two windows that let light into the room above.
In the middle of the east side of the Gymnasium can be traced the remains of a square building, constructed of large stone blocks. This probably marks the site of the monumental east gateway to the Gymnasium.

the seating is supported on an impressive subsstructure, comprising a series of parellel stone arches. Nysa stadium had a crowd of around 30.000 spectators.

horizontally into two by the diazoma, above which there are 26 rows of seats, while below it are only 23 rows. A large part of the auditorium is still preserved and allows us to calculate that it seated about 12.000 spectators. The stage building was furnished with five entrances.
The front of the stage's podium has a similar number of the divisions that were adorned with a superb frieze depicting scenes from the life of Dionysos, god of viticulture and wine-making. This frieze is extremely well preserved, bettering that of those found in the theatres at Hieropolis, Perge and Side. The frieze contunies with a representation of Nysa the midwife of Dionysos, accompanied by Eros (the god of love), followed by Pluto and Kore who were worshipped as the patron deities of the city and Pan (the god of shepherds and flocks). The goddesses Artemis and Athena, another Nymph and Aphrodite, the god Hermes Ariadne (Dionysos' wife) and Triptolemos seated in front of Demeter.
The frieze may be dated on stylistic grounds to the second half of the 2 nd century AD. It was erected to replace on earlier stage built in AD 25 - 50, which in turn had supplanted the original Hellenistic building.

torrential waters that pour down from Mt. Messogis throughthe site and to form the foundations of a large square in front of the Theatre. In Strabo's time this channel may well have been a simple, naturel rock-cut passage, but in Late Roman times it was furnished with masonry vaulting and arches. This work is a fine example of Roman civil engineering.

The archutecture fragments belongto a large voulted building and include a very fine and impresivve capital that its decorated with a scene of mythological figures and fishes above a row of achantus leaves. It can be dated on stylistic grounds to the second half of the 2.nd century.
In front of the Market Basilica passes the ancient street that leads to the city's Bouleuterion and Agora. Along the eastern side of this street has been found a row of nine shops, all in a good state preservation, built with masonry vaulting.

was roofed. On the northe side of the building is a vaulted gallery, containing four elliptical columns, set about 5 metres apart on the south side are five doorways providing entrances to the building. It's estimated the bouleuterion had a capasity of about 600-800. The south vestibule is decorated with a polychrome mosaic of geometric design. A pool was added to this part of the buildig at a late date in its history, together with a row of statue bases.

second entrance in the middle of the east side, while a third in the north-west corner linked the agora with the Bouleuterion.
A portrait head from a white marble statue was found under a fallen column drum in 1995. The fashion of hairstyling made popular by Sabina, the wife of the emperor Hadrian. The same year the Agora excavations produced another head from a female statue can be dated to the Roman Imperial period (1st -2nd centuries AD ). This work produced along with varius sculptural fragments, quantities of late Roma and Byzantine pottry and terracotta lamps.
The bucranion frizei fragments, which might be an altar were found (3.60 x 3.80) in the North-East of Nysa.
In this part of the Agora, the works enlarged to the North Exposed several inscribed architectural blocks in the rubble dump. In these inscriptions Tyche was also mentioned.
In the Agora is found an entrance on the east side comprising nine steps. In this a section, statue of a three faced draped Hekate was found. The height of the statue is 11,5 cm. Another sculptural find in the Agora is a marble -head of the god Hermes. On the other hand, the Agora excavations have also yielded a fine mosaic in 1998. The Agora was the centre of the commercial and economic life of Nysa and as such from the late Hellenistic period through well into the Roman Imperial period it must have undergone numerous alterations. Its excavation and restoration will continue in the coming seasons of work at Nysa (1 st-2nd centuries A.D.)

This is the famous library of Nysa whose ruins now measure 14.80 x 13.40 metres, giving it a roughly square plan. After the Library of Celsus at Ephesos it is the best preserved example of an ancient library in Anatolia. Indeed very few such buildings have survived from antiquity. Its main entrance must have been on the south side, and it had two or, more probably, threestories, although this uppermost storey is now completely gone. The ground floor of the Library is today buried up to half of its height, while remains of the second storey can be seen at the west end. This system, which is also found in the Library of Celsus, was designed to ensure that the shelves used for storing bound volumes and papirus rools were kept free from damp.

Gymnasium and along the slopes to the south that extend as far as the outskirts of Sultanhisar.
The Necropolis of the ancient city lies to the west along the sacred road that led from Nysa to Acharaca. One reaches it by passing through the fields to the west of the site and crossing two ravines. here many two-storied, vaulted tombs stand in a row, presenting an impressive facade to those passing along the road through the Necropolis. Inside these monumental tombs are found sarcophagi. Excavations were conducted briefly in the Necropolis in 1992, and some of the sarcophagi were opened. They were found still to contain a number of grave gifts, notably bronze coins and terracotta lamps.