Sewer system found in ancient city of Mastaura

AYDIN

Archaeologists have found a sewer system believed to be 1,800 years old during excavations in the ancient city of Mastaura in the western province of Aydın’s Nazilli district.

Experts have been working on the site, located inside a narrow valley and some 3 kilometers north of Nazilli, for the past two years.

“The size of the structure is amazing. A person can easily walk through the system, which spreads all over the ancient city. It appears to represent an early example of municipality work,” said Umut Tuncer, provincial director of culture.

The ancient city spans an area of some 160,000 square meters.

In ancient times, a river ran through Mastaura and people settled on both sides of the waterway, said Sedat Akkurnaz, from Adnan Menderes University’s Archaeology Department, who is in charge of the excavations at the site.

“What we see here is the sewer system built underground. The engineering technique and materials used in the structure suggest that the construction work started sometime around 200 B.C., and the sewer system was in use throughout the ancient period during the Roman Empire era,” Akkurnaz explained.

“We can only go some 20 meters into the sewer because there are cave-ins inside the structure blocking the path.”

Over the past two years, significant discoveries have been made at the ancient site, which has attracted the interest of archaeologists around the world, Tuncer said.

Earlier this year, archaeologists unearthed an ancient structure similar to the world-famous Colosseum amphitheater in Rome at the Mastaura site.

Experts said the structure is unique in Turkey due to the fact that it is completely round.