Alinda
ALINDA (λινδα: Eth. Ἀλινδεύς), a city of Caria, which was surrendered to Alexander by Ada, queen of Caria. It was one of the strongest places in Caria (Arrian. Anab. 1.23; Strab. p. 657). Its position seems to be properly fixed by Fellows (Discoveries in Lycia, p. 58) at Demmeergee-derasy, between Arab Hissa and Karpuslee, on a steep rock. He found no inscriptions, but out of twenty copper coins obtained here five had the epigraph Alinda.
[G.L]Apparently a member of the Delian Confederacy, but for only a few years. The elder Ada, expelled from Halikarnassos by her brother Pixodaros about 340 B.C., retired to Alinda; when Alexander arrived in 334, she offered to surrender the city to him and to adopt him as her son, asking in return to be restored to her throne. Alexander responded favorably, and after the capture of Halikarnassos appointed her queen of Caria (Strab. 657; Arr. 1.23.8). Arrian describes Alinda as “a place among the strongest in Caria.” It is probable that the city soon afterwards took the name of Alexandria by Latmos; a place of this name, otherwise unrecorded, is mentioned by Stephanos of Byzantium, who says it possessed a sanctuary of Adonis with an Aphrodite by Praxiteles. By 81 B.C. at the latest, the old name had been revived (OGIS 441). The coinage extended from the 3d c. B.C. to the 3d c. A.D. A bishopric of Alinda is recorded in the Byzantine lists.
The site at Karpuzlu is identified by coins found there. It answers well to Arrian's description. The city wall, in good ashlar, is well preserved on the hill. Arrian's words suggest that it was standing in 334 B.C., and it is likely that it was built by Mausolos. Near the top of the hill a fine tower in two stories is still almost complete.
The outstanding feature of the ruins is a superb market building, over 90 m long and 15 m high. It is in three stories, of which the lower two are preserved entire. The first story consists of pairs of chambers, one behind the other, evidently used as shops; they open to the S on a narrow terrace partly rock-cut, partly supported by masonry. The second story is divided down its whole length by a row of double half-columns; it seems to have formed a single long gallery, lighted by a large window at the W end, with no division into rooms. Narrow slits in the front wall afforded additional lighting. The top story was on a level with the agora, which adjoins it on the N and was accessible from it. Here too a row of columns ran lengthwise down the middle; a few stumps only are preserved, and of the walls only a part at the W end. The agora is an empty level space some 90 by 30 m; of its surrounding stoa practically nothing now remains.
The theater is also in excellent preservation. Contrary to Vitruvius' rule, it faces SW. The retaining wall of the cavea, and the analemmata, are in handsome ashlar masonry of Hellenistic date; an arched entrance leads to the diazoma on either side. The stage building was reconstructed in Roman times by merely extending the stage towards the orchestra; the building has collapsed, but its front wall is discernible. Of the stage itself the lower part is buried; the upper part is unusually well preserved. It is supported on plain pilasters carrying stone paving-blocks of which a number are still in place; it projects 5.1 m from the stage building.
At the summit of the hill are two foundations, one circular, over 15 m in diameter and of unknown purpose, the other apparently a small temple.
On the hill immediately to the SW is the second acropolis similarly fortified by ashlar masonry with towers, enclosing an area some 227 m in length. It seems to have been residential only, and is covered with remains of houses; just inside the wall is a row of six cisterns thickly coated with plaster still showing traces of red color. Adjoining on the S at a much lower level is a similar enclosure entered by a gate.
In the dip beyond this second acropolis, a stretch of an aqueduct is standing almost complete. Four arches are preserved, and a solid wall pierced by a gate 1.8 m wide. Over the arches is the water channel, with some of its covering stones still in position.
Tombs are numerous and of various kinds, some sarcophagi, many of “Carian” type, and some built tombs now converted to modern houses. None of them is inscribed.
BIBLIOGRAPHYC. Fellows, Lycia (1841) 58-64; E. Fabricius in Altertümer von Aegae (1889) 27-30; E. Hula & E. Szanto in SBWien 132 (1895) Abh. 2,2-3; W. R. Paton & J. Myres in JHS 16 (1896) 238-42; ATL I (1939) 467-68; G. E. Bean, Turkey beyond the Maeander (1971) ch. 16MI.
G. E. BEAN