Muğla-Yatağan Lagina
Lagina Hekate is a holy area, located on the borders of the Turgut Area of the Yatağan District of Muğla. The Lagina ruins are reached by going 9 km by the asphalt road that splits in two. To reach Lagina, it is necessary to take the road on the right near the Thermal plant.
The latest researches have shown that the region has had an uninterrupted settlement since the ancient Bronze Age (3000 BC). Seleukos kings made the Lagina holy area a religious centre. They also made the ancient Stratonikeia city, which is 11 km away, a political centre.
In accordance with the information that we have obtained from the inscriptions that are still existent on the Stratonikeia bouleuterion walls of Lagina, these two cities were connected to each other with a holy road. In the Lagina holy area, a propylon (a monumental entrance door), a holy road, an altar, 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 back wall of the Stoas. The monumental entrance door, which has has three entrances and an apsis carried by four Ionian columns is connected to the Stoas via a door. There are 10 staircases connected to the stone laid road going to the altar from the monumental entrance door. The temple surrounded by five staircases 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 Turkish scientists. These excavations were carried out by Osman Hamdi Bey and Halit Ethem Bey. In 1993, the archaeological excavation and the restoration works were restarted under the control of the Muğla Museum Directorate and the consultancy of an architect-archeologist Ahmet Tırpan.The friezes of the temple have been taken to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum by Osman Hamdi Bey and they are currently 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).
