Büyük Menderes River

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Büyük Menderes River, Turkey
Image:N/A Meander
Origin	Dinar
Mouth	Aegean Sea
Basin countries	Turkey
Length	250 km
Source elevation	N/A
Mouth elevation	0
Avg. discharge	N/A
Basin area	N/A

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The Büyük Menderes River (also known as the Meander or Maeander; Turkish: Büyük Menderes Nehri, Greek: Μαίανδρος) is a river in southwestern Turkey. It rises in west central Turkey, near Dinar (38°08′N 29°12′E), flowing west for some 250 km, joining the Aegean Sea near the ancient Ionian city of Miletus (37°28′N 27°11′E). Its ancient name along with its winding back and forth course gave rise to English word meander.

The Büyük Menderes was a celebrated river in ancient Asia Minor. It has its sources not far from Celaenae in Phrygia (now Dinar) (Xenoph. Anab. i. 2. § 7), where it gushed forth in a park of Cyrus. According to some (Strabo xii. p. 578; Maxim. Tyr. viii. 38) its sources were the same as those of the river Marsyas; but this is irreconcilable with Xenophon, according to whom the sources of the two rivers were only near each other, the Marsyas rising in a royal palace. Others, again, as Pliny (v. 31), Solinus (40. § 7), and Martianus Capella (6. p. 221), state that the Büyük Menderes flowed out of a lake on Mount Aulocrene. Col. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 158, &c.) reconciles all these apparently different statements by the remark that both the Maeander and the Marsyas have their origin in the lake on Mount Aulocrene, above Celaenae, but that they issue at different parts of the mountain below the lake.

The Büyük Menderes was so celebrated in antiquity for its numerous windings, that its name became, and still is, proverbial. (Hom. Il. ii. 869; Hesiod, Theog. 339; Herod. vii. 26, 30; Strab. xii. p. 577; Paus. viii. 41. § 3; Ov. Met. viii. 162, &c.; Liv. xxxviii. 13; Senec. Herc. Fur. 683, &c., Phoen. 605.) Its whole course has a southwesterly direction on the south of the range of Mount Messogis. South of Tripolis it receives the waters of the Lycus, whereby it becomes a river of some importance. Near Carura it passes from Phrygia into Caria, where it flows in its tortuous course through the Maeandrian plain (comp. Strab. xiv. p. 648, xv. p. 691), and finally discharges itself in the Gulf of Icaros (an arm of the Aegean Sea), between Priene and Myus, opposite to the Ionian city of Miletus, from which its mouth is only 10 stadia distant. (Plin. l. c.; Paus. ii. 5. § 2.) The tributaries of the Büyük Menderes include the Orgyas, Marsyas, Cludrus, Lethaeus, and Gaeson, in the north; and the Obrimas, Lycus, Harpasus, and a second Marsyas in the south. The Büyük Menderes is everywhere a very deep river (Nic. Chonat. p. 125; Liv. l. c.), but not very broad, so that in many parts its depth equals its breadth. As moreover it carried in its waters a great quantity of mud, it was navigable only for small craft. (Strab. xii. p. 579, xiv. p. 636.) It frequently overflowed its banks; and, in consequence of the quantity of its deposits at its mouth, the coast has been pushed about 20 or 30 stadia further into the sea, so that several small islands off the coast have become united with the mainland. (Paus. viii. 24. § 5; Thucyd. viii. 17.) There was a story about a subterraneous connection between the Maeander and the Alpheius in Elis. (Paus. il. 5. § 2; comp. Hamilton, Researches, vol. i. p. 525, foll., ii. p. 161, foll.)