Alinda

Alinda is an ancient Carian city tucked into the hillside terrain of Turkey's Aydın province, roughly 25 km southwest of Çine. Its place in history was secured in 334 BC when Ada of Caria — deposed ruler of the region — symbolically adopted Alexander the Great and handed him Alinda as a base of operations during his campaign against nearby Halicarnassus. The site preserves a well-intact Hellenistic theatre, a multi-storey market hall, and a series of tower ruins arranged across terraced slopes. Reaching the ruins requires a walk through olive groves on rough paths, but rewards visitors with sweeping views over the Maeander valley and an almost total absence of crowds — rare for a site of genuine antiquity in western Turkey.