"Cola! Fanta! Cold drinks..."
The voice from the guy walking around Miletos selling cold drinks, was easily heard in the deserted area around the ruins. A lot of elaborated stones, all leftovers from earlier civilisations. Maybe this man is easier heard on the top of the old theatre - where I'm sitting - than for the few people strolling around the old warm stones carved out of marble and other materials thousands of years ago.
"Soğuk içecekler! Cola! Fanta..."
At the time when all this slabs of stone was carved, nobody spoke turkish. Not until this place became the desert it is to-day. When these masons were working their stones, a tiny voice of a waterseller would have been difficult to catch among all the other sounds of Miletos. Voices of different origins apart from the local ionian dialect - just talking or advertising their goods as well as our waterman, together with the creaking from different kinds of wagons, and sounds from a variety of animals, More than three thousand years ago Miletos was the largest city in the growing greek area. A stronghold fighting the Hittites and then a meeting point of exchanging goods between caravans from the Inner Asia and the ships from the Mediterrean region.
In this comopolitan setting Thales (601-546BC) studied the nature and concluded that no gods, divine forces or mythology are dominating our nature. The nature was divine in it-self with the main substance of water. His thinking represents the beginning of greek philosofy, are the evaluations from modern as well as ancient philosofers, like Aristotle. The great Thales of Miletos was also a mathematician, calculating distances by use of geometry. And this impressing surroundings of Miletos gave inspiration to other scientists, as Anaximander (c610-c546BC) who was the first philosofer to write down his ideas. This distinguish him as a potenial first astronomer and the first one to publish a map. Among his students was Pytagoras... Impressing setting, Miletos in those days.
Even when Athens slowly grew as the most important city in the Aegean area, Miletos continued to be an important ally defending the Ionian part of Lydia against the Persians, although the fighting around the beginning of the 5th century BC turned out to be devasteding for the original Miletos. In 334BC Alexander the Great conquered Miletos. He walled it and created Miletos at its greatest, almost 90 hectares within its walls. He also initiated the expansion of the theatre where I am sitting, up to some 15000 spectators. Not as impressing as the one in Efesos, perhaps, but here in to-days Miletos its the only impressing "survival" from the good old days.
The voice of our man selling cold drinks is the only sound heard from my seat on the top of the theatre to the entrance that is shivering in the heat far away behind the few ruins that are still to be notified. Most people coming here after visiting f.ex. Efesos, is disapointed. Is this all that's left from the great thinkings left us by Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes etc.?
I am afraid it is. Looking down the empty theatre to the columns that mark the royal places, I realize that we might destroy most thing around us. The sad thing is, however, that the Milecians destroyed themselves. After periods of succesful exchange of goods and creating an environment for philosofical improvement, the inhabitants of later Miletos got tired of all these foreigners coming and going - not to say tired of those who would like to settle down inside the walls of Miletos.
To avoid all these strangers, the locals closed both its gates and its harbour. For the caravans as for the ships. They let the harbour at the river Meander, to silt up. Creating a vast area of marsland and mud, ideal for the mosquitos to nourish and raise their young ones. In their effort to isolate themselves, the people of Miletos had caused their own calamitous destiny. Huge swarms of mosquitos became unbearable. So - the inhabitants of Miletos had to abandon their city.
That is why I can easily hear the lonely shouting from our man with the cold drinks. That is the only sound left of what used to be the Big Apple of yesterday. Until their inhabitants refused to accept people from other cultures within their community...
Yours Thor Thorstensen
"Soğuk içecekler! Cola! Fanta..."
At the time when all this slabs of stone was carved, nobody spoke turkish. Not until this place became the desert it is to-day. When these masons were working their stones, a tiny voice of a waterseller would have been difficult to catch among all the other sounds of Miletos. Voices of different origins apart from the local ionian dialect - just talking or advertising their goods as well as our waterman, together with the creaking from different kinds of wagons, and sounds from a variety of animals, More than three thousand years ago Miletos was the largest city in the growing greek area. A stronghold fighting the Hittites and then a meeting point of exchanging goods between caravans from the Inner Asia and the ships from the Mediterrean region.
In this comopolitan setting Thales (601-546BC) studied the nature and concluded that no gods, divine forces or mythology are dominating our nature. The nature was divine in it-self with the main substance of water. His thinking represents the beginning of greek philosofy, are the evaluations from modern as well as ancient philosofers, like Aristotle. The great Thales of Miletos was also a mathematician, calculating distances by use of geometry. And this impressing surroundings of Miletos gave inspiration to other scientists, as Anaximander (c610-c546BC) who was the first philosofer to write down his ideas. This distinguish him as a potenial first astronomer and the first one to publish a map. Among his students was Pytagoras... Impressing setting, Miletos in those days.
Even when Athens slowly grew as the most important city in the Aegean area, Miletos continued to be an important ally defending the Ionian part of Lydia against the Persians, although the fighting around the beginning of the 5th century BC turned out to be devasteding for the original Miletos. In 334BC Alexander the Great conquered Miletos. He walled it and created Miletos at its greatest, almost 90 hectares within its walls. He also initiated the expansion of the theatre where I am sitting, up to some 15000 spectators. Not as impressing as the one in Efesos, perhaps, but here in to-days Miletos its the only impressing "survival" from the good old days.
The voice of our man selling cold drinks is the only sound heard from my seat on the top of the theatre to the entrance that is shivering in the heat far away behind the few ruins that are still to be notified. Most people coming here after visiting f.ex. Efesos, is disapointed. Is this all that's left from the great thinkings left us by Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes etc.?
To avoid all these strangers, the locals closed both its gates and its harbour. For the caravans as for the ships. They let the harbour at the river Meander, to silt up. Creating a vast area of marsland and mud, ideal for the mosquitos to nourish and raise their young ones. In their effort to isolate themselves, the people of Miletos had caused their own calamitous destiny. Huge swarms of mosquitos became unbearable. So - the inhabitants of Miletos had to abandon their city.
That is why I can easily hear the lonely shouting from our man with the cold drinks. That is the only sound left of what used to be the Big Apple of yesterday. Until their inhabitants refused to accept people from other cultures within their community...
Yours Thor Thorstensen
