Looters Target 2,300-Year-Old Amyzon as Excavations in Ancient Carian City Remain Delayed

The ancient city of Amyzon, located in Aydın Province in western Türkiye, has become increasingly vulnerable to looting after long-planned archaeological excavations failed to begin.

Dating back more than 2,300 years, the Carian city preserves impressive defensive walls and architectural remains. Yet despite its archaeological importance, Amyzon has not been the focus of a systematic excavation for decades.

The lack of an official excavation team has left large parts of the site exposed — and in some cases, damaged by illegal digging.

Excavations Announced but Never Began

In 2021, authorities announced plans to launch new archaeological excavations at Amyzon. The project raised hopes that the site would finally receive sustained scientific attention after nearly eighty years without major fieldwork.

However, the initiative stalled when an official excavation directorate was never established.

Without an academic team responsible for research and protection, the project could not move forward. As a result, Amyzon remains what locals sometimes describe as one of Aydın’s “orphaned” ancient cities — historically significant, yet still waiting for proper archaeological study.

Looting and Earlier Excavations

In the absence of continuous archaeological supervision, parts of the site have reportedly become targets for illegal excavations.

Treasure hunters searching for artifacts have caused damage in several areas of the ancient settlement.

Local accounts also recall an earlier episode in the 1940s, when a foreign researcher is said to have conducted excavations at Amyzon with workers from nearby villages. According to these stories, numerous inscribed stones were uncovered during that time and later disappeared, although documentation of the work remains limited.

Monumental Walls and Underground Chambers

Even without modern excavation, Amyzon’s surviving remains are striking.

The city is enclosed by massive fortification walls built from large isodomic stone blocks, rising to nearly six meters in height. The precision of the masonry reflects the engineering traditions of the Hellenistic period, when many cities in western Anatolia were heavily fortified.

Within the settlement, archaeologists have also identified a series of underground chambers arranged parallel to one another. These vaulted spaces are thought to have served as storage areas or granaries, suggesting that Amyzon once played an important role in the regional economy of ancient Caria.

Waiting Beneath the Soil

Today the ruins lie in a landscape of hills and forests that attracts hikers and history enthusiasts. Yet much of the ancient city still remains buried.

Archaeologists believe that systematic excavations could reveal valuable information about settlement patterns, trade networks, and daily life in Caria during the Hellenistic era.

For now, however, Amyzon remains an important but largely unexplored archaeological site — waiting for the research that could finally bring its long history back into view.

Cover Image Credit: Aydın Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism