Kelainai/Apameia Kibotos

Kelainai/Apameia Kibotos (Afyonkarahisar)

The twin sites of Kelainai and Apameia Kibotos are at Dinar, in the southeast of Afyonkarahisar province and on the route down the Menderes valley to Aydın. Occupied from the Protogeometric period, Kelainai was the site of an Achaemenid royal residence and Xerxes is documented as having hunted in the area in 480/481 BC. In the early 3rd century BC the Hellenistic ruler Antiochus I Soter moved the city to lower ground nearby and renamed it Apameia Kibotos. It was refounded by the Roman proconsul C. Fannius in 49 BC.

In 1986-89 the theatre and a residential area at Apameia were excavated by A. Topbaş. Other structures identified at the site include a stadium and baths. To the west of the theatre is a necropolis. A survey of both sites, with geophysical prospection and documentation of architectural remains, began in 2008 under the direction of Lâtife Summerer and Alexander von Kienlin of Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich.