Alinda (Caria)

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Alinda was an ancient inland city of Caria in Anatolia (situated near the modern-day village of Karpuzlu, Aydin Province, in the Asian part of Turkey). Alinda was an important city in the second millennium BC, and appears in Hittite sources as Ialanti (J. Garstang, p.179). It is situated on a hilltop which overlooks the surrounding agricultural flatlands. It was this fortress which was held by exiled Carian Queen Ada's whose surrender to, and adoption of, Alexander the Great in 334 BC occurred at Alinda. (Arrian 1.23.8). [1] Shortly afterward, the city was renamed Alexandria by the Latmos and as thus was recorded by Stephanus of Byzantium. The prior name was restored by at least 81 BC. [2] It appears as "Alinda" in Ptolemy's Geographia (Book V, ch. 2) of the second century AD.

Alinda remained an important commercial city; minting its own coins from the third century BC to the third century AD. [3] [4] Stephanus records that the city had a temple of Apollo containing a statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles. [5]

Alinda has been extensively excavated. Alinda has a necropolis of Carian tombs. [6] Alinda also had a major water system including a Roman aqueduct, a nearly-intact 5,000-seat Roman amphitheater, and remains of numerous temples and sarcophagi. [7] [8]

Alinda appears on Byzantine lists of bishoprics, and it remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church; the seat is vacant after the death of the last bishop in 1976. [9] [10]