Visiting Dinar (Apamea)

Me, Dr. Mark Wilson and Levent Oral we had lunch with the Mayor of Dinar city Saffet Acar, historian Mehmet Ozalp and his daughter before the discovery of the ancient Dinar (Apamea)

Apamea Cibotus, Apamea ad Maeandrum (on the Meander) , Apamea or Apameia was an ancient city in Anatolia probably founded in the 3rd century BC by Antiochus I Sauter, who named it after his mother Apama. It was in Hellenistic Phrygia but became part of the Roman province of Pisidia. It was near, but on lower ground than, Celaenae (Kelainai).

The site is now partly occupied by the city of Dinar (sometimes locally known also as Geyikler, “the gazelles,” perhaps from a tradition of the Persian hunting-park.

The town Dinar is built amidst the ruins of Calaenae – Apamea.