Aphrodisias

Aphrodisias was a small ancient Greek Hellenistic city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Anatolia, Aydin/Turkey.

The city had notable schools for sculpture, as well as philosophy, remaining a centre of paganism until the end of the 5th century. The city was destroyed by earthquake in the early 7th century, and never recovered its former prosperity, being reduced to a small fortified settlement on the site of the ancient theatre. Around the same time, it was also renamed to Stauropolis to remove pagan connotations, but already by the 8th century it was known as Caria after the region, which later gave rise to its modern Turkish name, Geyre.