Carura or Karoura () was an ancient town of

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

on the north-eastern border of

ancient Caria Caria (; from Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid- Ionia ( Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian mainlanders ...

. Its position east of the range of Cadmus assigns it to

Phrygia In classical antiquity, Phrygia ( ; , ''Phrygía'') was a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River. Stories of the heroic age of Greek mythology tell of several legendary Ph ...

, under which country

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

describes it. It was on the south side of the Maeander River, 20 miles west of Laodicea to

Ephesus Ephesus (; ; ; may ultimately derive from ) was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, in present-day Selçuk in İzmir Province, Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of Apasa, the former Arzawan capital ...

. The place is identified by hot springs approximately 12 miles northwest of

Denizli Denizli is a city in Aegean Region, Aegean Turkey, and seat of the province of Denizli Province, Denizli. The city forms the urban part of the districts Merkezefendi and Pamukkale, Denizli, Pamukkale, with a population of 691 783 in 2024. Denizl ...

, that have been described by the scholars Pococke and Chandler.

observed that Carura contained many inns (), which is explained by the fact of its being on a line of great traffic, by which the wool and other products of the interior were transported to the coast. He added that it has hot springs, some in the Maeander, and some on the banks of the river. This tract of land is subject to earthquakes. In a story reported by Strabo, a brothel keeper was lodging in the inns with a great number of his women, they were all swallowed up one night by the earth opening. Henry William Chandler observed on the spot a jet of hot water, which sprung up several inches from the ground; and also the remains of an ancient bridge over the river. On the road between Carura and Laodicea was the temple of Men Carus, a

Caria Caria (; from Greek language, Greek: Καρία, ''Karia''; ) was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia (Mycale) south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Carians were described by Herodotus as being Anatolian main ...

n deity; and in the time of Strabo there was a noted Herophilean school of medicine here, under the presidency of Zeuxis, and then Alexander Philalethes. Chandler discovered some remains on the road to Laodicea, which, he supposes, may be the traces of this temple; but he states nothing that confirms this conjecture.

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

mentions a place called "Cydrara", to which Xerxes came on his road from

Colossae Colossae (; ) was an ancient city of Phrygia in southern Asia Minor (Anatolia), Turkey. The Epistle to the Colossians, an early Christian text which identifies its author as Paul the Apostle, is addressed to the church in Colossae. A significa ...

Sardes Sardis ( ) or Sardes ( ; Lydian language, Lydian: , romanized: ; ; ) was an ancient city best known as the capital of the Lydian Empire. After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Lydia (satrapy) ...

. It was the border between

Lydia Lydia (; ) was an Iron Age Monarchy, kingdom situated in western Anatolia, in modern-day Turkey. Later, it became an important province of the Achaemenid Empire and then the Roman Empire. Its capital was Sardis. At some point before 800 BC, ...

and

, and the Lydian king

Croesus Croesus ( ; ; Latin: ; reigned: ) was the Monarch, king of Lydia, who reigned from 585 BC until his Siege of Sardis (547 BC), defeat by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in 547 or 546 BC. According to Herodotus, he reigned 14 years. Croesus was ...

fixed a

stele A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

there with an inscription on it, which declared the boundary. Classical scholar

William Martin Leake William Martin Leake FRS (14 January 17776 January 1860) was an English soldier, spy, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British Army, spending much of his career in the Mediterrane ...

thought that the Cydrara of Herodotus may be Carura. It could not be far off; but the boundary between Lydia and Phrygia should perhaps not be located south of the Maeander in this region. Modern scholars locate Carura near Tekke, in Asiatic Turkey.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in ancient Caria Populated places in ancient Lydia Populated places in Phrygia Former populated places in Turkey History of Aydın Province