6th APHRODISIAS & LAODICEIA INTERNATIONAL YOUTH SPORT, CULTURE AND ART FESTIVAL
 

THE AIM OF THE FESTIVAL
The aim of the festival is to promote peace and understanding amongst the youth of the world through sports, culture, art and education.
Also to help create a forum where old and modern meets in an excellent form of sports, culture and history.
We believe this festival meets the United Nations, European Council and IOC  objectives for promoting peace, understanding, happiness through sports education.

PARTICIPIANTS
Young people with the background of sports, culture and art in ages between 18-30 are selected from various countries and youngsters from Turkey will participate. Applicants with active sports background together with history education, art and sports culture are encouraged to participate.

EXPENSES
All expenses (except plane ticket to and from İzmir/Denizli to home) will be covered by The National Olympic Commitee of Turkey and the sponsors of this exquisite international festival.

LANGUAGE
The language of the program will be in English.

HOST AND SPONSORS
The National Olympic Committee of Turkey with the support of the Youth and Sport Administration, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Pamukkale University and many other sponsors has decided to sponsor this festival which will bring young people together around the world who are involved in sports, culture and art.


THE PROGRAM
The participants will be met at the İzmir and/or Denizli airports and transported to Denizli, which is the town where the Pamukkale University is located.
The participants will stay at the dormitories of the Pamukkale University. Two centers of the activities will be the ancient cities Aphrodisias and Laodiceia.
Laodiceia is close to Denizli, Aphrodisias is about 50 kms from Denizli.
The participiants will be taken to different surrounding ancient cities during the day and at night will be assembled either in Aphrodisias or Pamukkale for conferences, movies and other cultural activities. Those who wish to talk about his/her country will have 15 minutes to do so.
Visits will also include Ephesus, which is also another important ancient town.
A detailed program is attached to this information sheet.


GEOGRAPHY OF THE REGION
From the Aegean seaport of İzmir, the ancient Smyrna, roads leading toward the interior of Anatolia wind through fertile valleys and cross many rivers and streams, against a background of majestic mountain ranges. They pass also through uncountable centuries of our past.

From the dim mists of prehistory this western portion of Turkey –often called Anatolia or Asia Minor in an historical context- witnessed the rise and decline of civilization upon civilization, empire upon empire, spanning thousands of years of human developent and destiny.

APHRODISIAS
“Aphrodisias” wrote Octavian the triumvir a few years before he became the Emperor Augustus, “is the one city from all of Asia, I have selected to be my own” .

This majestic testimonial is incised, in exquisite greek lettering, high on what is known as the archive wall of the theatre.
It is on this wall that the Aphrodisians recorded the decrees, treaties, laws and privileges of which they were particularly proud of. As one stands before it in the early morning sun –which catches the wall for only an hour or so each day, just after its rising one feels a sudden, involuntary tremor of that same pride.
Perhaps, too, there is something of the Emperor’s own sentiment; for, of all the Greco-Roman sites of Anatolia, Ahrodisias is the most hauntingly beautiful, wrote late Professor Kenan Erim, who spent most of his life uncovering this over 2000 years old city, which during the centuries of Roman rule, western Anatolian cities were among the most significant centres of art, sport and culture in the empire.

In addition to above, Aphrodisias has best the preserved athletic stadium, amfitheatre and bulleterion (odeon) and other places of interest including a very modern archeological museum.


LAODICEIA
Is the name of several ancient cities, most of which were founded by the Seleucid kings of Babylonia. The founder of the dynasty, Seleucus I, is supposed to have named five of them after his mother, Laodice.

Laodiceia ad Lycum, on the banks of the Lycus in Phrygia, south of Hierapolis, is supposed to have been founded by Antiochus II (261–246 BC). Being favourably placed on the road leading from the Ionian cities to the Euphrates, it became a great commercial centre. In early times there was a medical school there and a school of sceptic philosophers. The city was destroyed by an earthquake during the reign of Nero, but was rebuilt. Afterwards it was one of the early seats of Christianity, and its prosperity declined in time. The ruins are known as EskiHisar.


HIEROPOLIS / PAMUKKALE
Hierapolis ('holy city') was the ancient city on top of the famous Pamukkale hot springs located in south-western Turkey near Denizli.
Hierapolis is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As the hot springs of Pamukkale were used as a spa since the 2nd century B.C., people came to soothe their ailings here. Many of them retired and died here. The large necropolis is filled with sarcophagi.
The great baths were constructed with huge stone blocks without the use of cement, and consisted of various closed or open sections linked together. There are deep niches in the inner section of the bath, library, gymnasium and other closed or open locations. The complex, which was constructed in the 2nd century, constitutes a good example of vault-type architecture. The complex is now an archaeological museum.

EPHESUS
Ephesus (Efes in Turkish) was an ancient Ionian city on the west coast of Anatolia, close to the current Selçuk, a province of İzmir, Turkey. It was one of the twelve cities of the Ionian League during the ancient ages.
The city was famed for the Temple of Artemis (completed around 550 BC), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Temple was destroyed in 401 BC by a mob led by St. John Chrysostom.  Emperor Constantine I rebuilt much of the city and erected new public baths. The town was again partially destroyed by an earthquake in 614. The city's importance as a commercial centre declined as the harbor was slowly silted up by the Cayster River (Küçük Menderes).
Ephesus was one of the seven churches of Asia that are cited in the Book of Revelation.  The Gospel of John may have been written here. It is also the site of a large gladiators' graveyard.
Today's archaeological site lies 3 kilometers southwest of the town of Selçuk, in the Selçuk district of İzmir Province, Turkey. The ruins of Ephesus are a favorite international and local tourist attraction, partly owing to their easy access from Adnan Menderes Airport and via the port of Kuşadası.

ORGANIZATION COMMITEE
Culture and Art Commission of the The National Olympic Commitee of Turkey will be in charge of organization.