Antandros: Where Aeneas Built His Fleet

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1. What is Antandros?
2. How do you get to Antandros?
3. When is the best time to visit Antandros?
4. What is the history of Antandros?
5. What is Antandros famous for?
6. What can you see at Antandros?
7. Common misconceptions about Antandros
8. Frequently asked questions about Antandros
9. What do the official records say about Antandros?

What is Antandros?

Antandros was a city on the north shore of the Gulf of Edremit, at the foot of Mount Ida, in the ancient region of the Troad. Its fortune came from the mountain behind it: timber and pitch for building ships. It appears in Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, and most famously in Virgil’s Aeneid, where the Trojan survivors under Aeneas build their fleet at Antandros before sailing to Italy.

The site lies on and around Devren hill, between the resort of Altınoluk and the village of Avcılar. Excavations by Ege University have uncovered the city’s necropolis and Roman-period remains, including a mosaic floor.

How do you get to Antandros?

Antandros is at Altınoluk, about 25 km west of Edremit on the coast road towards Assos and Çanakkale. Buses run along this road between Edremit, Akçay and Altınoluk. Balıkesir Koca Seyit Airport (EDO), south of Edremit, is the nearest airport. Because it is an active excavation, access to parts of the site varies; ask in Altınoluk before you go.

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When is the best time to visit Antandros?

Spring and autumn are most comfortable. Excavations usually take place in summer, which is when you are most likely to see work in progress. Combine the visit with the beach at Altınoluk or a walk into Kazdağı National Park.

What is the history of Antandros?

Ancient writers disagreed on who founded Antandros. Alcaeus named the Leleges, Herodotus the Pelasgians, Thucydides the Aeolians, and Aristotle the Edonians and Cimmerians. The Persian satrap Otanes captured the city in 512 BC, valuing it for Ida’s timber and pitch. Antandros joined the Delian League in 427 BC, was seized by exiles from Mytilene in 424 BC during the Peloponnesian War, and in 411/410 BC expelled its Persian garrison with Spartan help, before Persian control returned. Xenophon’s Ten Thousand passed through in 399 BC on their way home.

The city struck its own coins from about 440 to about 284 BC and again in the Roman imperial period, from Titus to Elagabalus. In the Byzantine era it was a bishopric under Ephesus.

The German geographer Heinrich Kiepert found an inscription naming Antandros in a mosque wall at Avcılar in 1842 and, returning in 1888, identified the acropolis on Devren hill from coins found by villagers. The British archaeologist John Cook surveyed the site in 1959 and 1968. Graves near Altınoluk were studied between 1989 and 1995, and in 2001 Ege University began excavating under Gürcan Polat. A geophysical survey that year detected the remains of 19 Roman villas, and a mosaic floor was uncovered in the first season. Recent seasons have reported pithos burials, a 2nd-century BC stele and tombs from the 3rd to 5th centuries BC.

What is Antandros famous for?

• Aeneas’s fleet. Virgil’s Aeneid (Book 3) places the building of the Trojan fleet here.
• Timber for ships from Mount Ida, which made it valuable to Persians and Greeks alike.
• Its necropolis, used continuously from the 7th century BC to the Hellenistic period.

What can you see at Antandros?

The necropolis. About 400 m west of the city, it has produced Greek pottery of the late 8th and early 7th centuries BC and many burials, including pithos (large jar) graves. Roman and Byzantine graves are rare here.

Roman remains. The 2001 geophysical survey detected 19 Roman villas, and the first excavation season uncovered a mosaic floor.

The acropolis on Devren hill, with views over the Gulf of Edremit to Lesbos.

The setting. The olive-covered slopes of Kaz Dağı above and the gulf below show why the city mattered: timber came down from the mountain and ships went out from the shore.

Nearby. Şahindere Canyon, one of the best-known walks on Kaz Dağı, starts close to Altınoluk, and forest roads lead from Altınoluk into Kazdağı National Park. Güre, between Altınoluk and Akçay, has thermal springs that the 2002 inventory says rise at 64°C, in a bathhouse whose original parts show the features of a Roman bath. To the west, the coast road continues into Çanakkale province towards Assos.

Common misconceptions about Antandros

Was Antandros built by Aeneas?

What people often assume: Because of Virgil, Antandros is sometimes described as a Trojan city founded by Aeneas.

What the record says: Virgil only has Aeneas build his fleet here. Ancient authors credited the foundation to various peoples, among them Leleges, Pelasgians, Aeolians, Edonians and Cimmerians, and none of them to Aeneas (source).

Frequently asked questions about Antandros

What do the official records say about Antandros?

The 2002 inventory does not describe Antandros separately, but it lists Altınoluk among the ancient cities of the province, alongside Kyzikos, Daskyleion, Edremit and Havran. Of the mountain whose timber made the city rich, it says: Kaz Dağları lie west of the provincial borders, north of the Gulf of Edremit. Named Ida in mythology, this mountain stretches westwards and rises to 1,767 metres.

It adds that Ayvalık, Burhaniye, Ören, Edremit, Akçay, Erdek and Altınoluk are attractive holiday places for those who want to rest in pleasant surroundings and for those interested in historical and archaeological sites. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Balıkesir Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)