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Backgammon Game Discovers Ancient CityThe festive opening of the new building Afrodisias Ancient City Museum was held last weekend in the Aydın province in the Aegean region in Turkey, a year and a half after it was opened for public and 30 years after the museum was originally initiated. The museum exhibits the ruins of the Afrodisias ancient city that were first discovered about 40 years ago in the Geyre village, located at the Karacasu district, thanks to a backgammon game.
It all started one night in 1959, when the Turkish photographer Ara Güler has paid attention to an extraordinary backgammon table on which two Geyre villagers held their friendly game. What the couple used as a platform for their backgammon table turned out to be an ancient column that belonged to the ancient city of Afrodisias, named after the cult image of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, practiced ate the area during the Roman and Hellenistic periods.
After Ara Güler findings, the Turkish Archeologist Kenan Erim and the New York University Archeology department joined the digging and helped revealing the ancient city of Afrodisias, which later, in the Christian era, was named Stauroúpolis and has suffered tremblers and flooding.
The Afrodisias Ancient City Museum exhibits tens of thousands of objects from prehistoric times to Hellenic periods including the statue of Aphrodite of Afrodisias, and other sculptures, tombs and findings. Although older versions of backgammon have been played at those times in this area, there are not any backgammon relics in the museum.
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