The Hellenistic theatre
A restored auditorium for some 3,600 people, and most days you will be sitting in it alone.
Ingeborg Simon — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ingeborg Simon — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany — CC BY-SA 2.0
A Hellenistic theatre for some 3,600 people, carved into a hillside, and on an ordinary morning you may well have it entirely to yourself. That is Metropolis: a Greek, then Roman, city some 50 km north of Kuşadası on the İzmir road near the town of Torbalı, known in Turkey as the «City of the Mother Goddess» because its people worshipped the mother goddess Meter Gallesia on Mount Gallesion, the ridge that shelters it. Entry is free, the site opens daily in summer from 08:30 to 19:00 (last entry 18:00), and you will rarely see a tour coach in the car park. The theatre is the undisputed star. Built in the second century BC, when the city flourished under the kings of Pergamon, reworked by the Romans and restored in 2000-2001, its tiers are now sound enough to sit on and photograph. Above it on the slope is the bouleuterion, the council chamber that seated about 350 of the city's notables, a Doric stoa from the second century BC, and two Roman bath complexes, the lower one still marble-lined around its stepped pools. The acropolis crowns the hill inside its Hellenistic walls, 16,000 square metres of it, with the whole Küçük Menderes plain spread out below. Excavation has continued since 1989; in 2025 the dig team uncovered the agora on the southern slope. Be honest with yourself: anyone who has walked Ephesus will not be dazzled by the scale here. Metropolis is far smaller, only a fraction has been exposed, and the paths between buildings are bare, unshaded earth tracks. What it offers instead is the thing Ephesus cannot in July: silence, and the freedom to sit on a two-thousand-year-old stone seat with nobody at your elbow. By car from Kuşadası you take the Selçuk road, then head north through Belevi to Torbalı, about 50 minutes to an hour; there is no practical public transport to the site itself, so it is your own car or a private tour. It works best as a morning stop on the drive to İzmir, or as the second half of a day that begins at Ephesus and ends here. For families: the site is steep, the steps are uneven stone, a pushchair is useless, and children under five will tire of it quickly. There is no café and almost no shade, so bring water and a hat and avoid midday in August, when the exposed hilltop passes 35 degrees. In spring, wildflowers cover the slope and this becomes one of the gentlest, emptiest corners of the Aegean coast.
A restored auditorium for some 3,600 people, and most days you will be sitting in it alone.
A 350-seat bouleuterion and a Roman bath whose pools still keep their marble lining.
A short climb to the walled summit opens the whole Küçük Menderes plain beneath you.
Yeniköy Mahallesi, Sevgi Yolu Sokak, 35860 Torbalı, İzmir
It is no substitute for Ephesus; it is far smaller and far less spectacular. It earns a visit only if you enjoy ruins, have a car and spare time, or are driving the İzmir road anyway, in which case it gives you a quiet hour and a lovely theatre with no crowds and no ticket. With small children or in August heat, stick to Ephesus.
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