Gerga in Caria
The interesting village-site of Gerga was first described by G. Cousin in BCH XXIV (1900), 28–31. He was followed in 1933 by A. Laumonier, who published two articles in BCH LVIII (1934), 304–7 and LX (1936), 286–97; cf. Les Cultes Indigènes en Carie 446–51. The ruins, now known as Gâvurdamları or Gâvurpazarı, lie in the wild mountain country some 6 km. east-south-east of Eski Çine, above the valley of the Marsyas river. The nearest city is Alabanda 12 or 13 km. to the northwest. Both of the French scholars approached the site in what was then the natural way, from the west and north; but the fine new tarmac road from Çine to Yatağan has now made the approach from the south much easier, and on 6th October, 1968, I visited Gerga from this direction, crossing the Marsyas near the fine old Turkish bridge at Incekemer. The site proves to be a good deal more extensive than had previously been realised. It extends over two hills, which I call the eastern and western, though north-eastern and south-western would perhaps be more accurate. The principal centre, with the very handsome “funerary temple”, the strange statue, the curious pyramidal stelae and other features, is on the south slope of the higher eastern hill, and neither Cousin nor Laumonier seems to have penetrated much, if at all, beyond this.