Abstract

SW Turkey was called as the area of Caria in the archaic ages. This region hosts many ancient cities Stratonikeia and Lagina (Yata?an, Mu?la), Idyma (Ula, Mu?la), Kaunos (Ortaca-Dalaman, Mu?la), Labranda (Milas, Mu?la), and Gerga (Çine, Ayd?n) etc. Among these cities, Stratonikeia, Lagina come forward due to known as a gladiator’s city and first pagan city in the world. Stratonikeia also includes the subsequent civilisations traces such as Romans, Byzantium, Seljuk State, Period of Emirates, Ottoman Empires and Turkish Republic. The remnants of these civilisations highly affected by the natural process such as sedimentation and earthquakes. During the reconstruction of these structures using an original building stone are highly important. Within this context, stones of Lagina and Stratonikeia are specified by visual inspections and their origins were compared with recent marble catalogues. White-purple-lilac-black coloured marbles were widely used for the construction of the base, side walls, pillars, seats of the amphitheatre, gymnasium, assembly and road and gates of both cities can be found in recent marble catalogues under the different trade mark. They can be easily supplied close marble quarries. Phyllite-schist-gneiss are metamorphic rocks that widely used at the on the base and side walls, crop out in northern part of the cities. Travertines were limitedly used in pillar and side walls of the Lagina ancient city. Travertine also has limited exposure surroundings of the Mu?la. Additional more detailed and analytic studies require for the possible assessments in the future.

Keywords

stratonikeia, lagina, SW Turkey, ancient cities, building stones