Apollo Smintheus Archaeological Site

About

The Apollo Smintheus Archaeological Site is a sanctuary at the foot of a valley near the town of Gülpınar, formerly Külahlı, in the Ayvacık district of Çanakkale. In antiquity the Smintheion was one of the important cult centres of the Troad and a leading sanctuary of the Late Hellenistic period in Anatolia. Traces of a prehistoric settlement dated to around 5000 BC have also been identified here. Apollo was linked with mice in this region and so was worshipped as Smintheus, "lord of the mice". The Temple of Apollo Smintheus at the heart of the site was built in the Ionic order around 150 BC. Following the pseudodipteral plan used by the architect Hermogenes, it is the only known example of this type in the Troad, and its reliefs draw on scenes from Homer's Iliad. Around the temple are an altar, a bridge, a sacred way, Roman baths with water channels and cisterns, streets once lined with statues and inscriptions, a heroon and villas.