Bodrum - Lagina
Laglna Hekate holy area Is on the borders of the Turgut Area of the Yatagan District of Mugla. The Lagina ruins are reached by going 9 km by the asphalt road that splits in to two taking the right near the Thermal plant The fame of the Lagina holy area, which was an important cult centre of Karia, has reached today and this area is now called Lenye.
The last researches have shown that the region has an uninterrupted settlement since the ancient Bronze Age (3000 BC) until today. Seleukos kings have made the Lagina holy area a religion centre and Stratonikeia city, which is 11 km away, a political centre.
In accordance with the information we obtained from the Inscriptions that are still existent on the Stratonlkela bouleuterion walls of Lagina, these two cities were connected to each otherwith a holy road.In the Lagina holy area, a propylon (monumental entrance door), a holy road, an altar, a a periobolos (wall surrounding the holy area), the Doric Stoas and the Hekate temple are located.The holy area is also surrounded by 2 metre walls forming the backwall of the Stoas. The monumental entrance door having three entrances and an apsis carried by four Ionian columns is connected to the Stoas via a door.There are 10 stair series connected to the stone laid road going to the altarfromthe monumental entrance door. The temple surrounded by five stair series and based on a platform that has a single series of columns with the Korinth heads and the Attic Ion aisles, Is In the middle of the holy area. The temple is constructed in the pseudo dipteros style, with 8 x 11 columns in the Korinth style. There are two Ionian columns in the Pronaos part The archaeological excavations carried out in the Lagina holy area are important in terms of their being the first archaeological excavations carried out by the Turkish scientists. These excavations have been carried out by Osman Hamdi Bey and Halit Ethem Bey. In 1993, the archaeological excavation and the restoration works were re - started under the control of the Mugla Museum Directorate and the consultancy of an architect-archeologist Ahmet Tirpan.The friezes of the temple have been taken to the istanbul Archaeology Museum by Osman Hamdi Bey and they are being exhibited in the same museum. The friezes have four different themes. (In the east: scenes relating to the life of Zeus: in the west: the war of the gods and giants; in the south: Karia meeting of the gods; in the north: the war of Amazons).