Thirteen Ancient Cities of Western Anatolia from Zeleia to Knidos in Order of Recorded Latitude, North to South

Zeleia lies at the head of the path at a recorded latitude of about 40.20 degrees, at the foot of Mount Ida along the Aesepus river near modern Sarikoy. Homer's Iliad names it as sending warriors to Troy under Pandarus, and Persian satraps met here to debate how to meet Alexander the Great before the Granicus in 334 BCE.

Abydos, at about 40.195 degrees, stood on the Nara Burnu promontory on the Asian shore of the Hellespont, opposite Sestos. Founded around 670 BC at the narrowest point of the straits, it was one of the main crossing points between Europe and Asia until the Lampsacus to Kallipolis crossing replaced it in the 13th century, and the site was abandoned in the early 14th century.

Achilleion, at about 39.91 degrees, was a fortified outpost on the promontory of Besika Burnu, about 8 kilometers south of Sigeion. A tumulus at Besiktepe was regarded in antiquity as the tomb of Achilles, and Alexander the Great visited it in 334 BC and the emperor Caracalla in AD 216.

Gergis, at about 39.90 degrees, was a town of the Troad north of the Scamander River, said by Herodotus to have been settled by descendants of the Teucrians. Herodotus records the army of Xerxes I passing through it in 480 BCE on the way to Abydos, the previous stop, and King Attalus of Pergamon later resettled its people near the sources of the Caicus.

Gargara, at about 39.59 degrees, began beneath Mount Gargaron, one of the three peaks of Mount Ida. In the fourth century BC the settlement moved about 5.8 kilometers south, and the original site became known as Old Gargara; both sites lie in the Ayvacik district of Canakkale Province.

Hamaxitus, at about 39.54 degrees, was considered to mark the boundary between the Troad and Aeolis. Its territory, Hamaxitia, included the temple of Apollo Smintheus, the salt pans at Tragasai and the Satnioeis river, and the site has been placed on the rise called Beşiktepe near the village of Gülpınar.

Adramyttium, at about 39.50 degrees, gave its name to the Gulf of Adramyttium, and according to Aristotle it was founded by Adramytos, son of King Alyattes of Lydia. Saint Paul left it by ship on his voyage to Rome, and its successor, the town of Edremit, had an estimated 125,324 people at the end of 2022.

Atarneus, at about 39.09 degrees, lay on the road linking Adramyttium to the plain of the Caicus, and its site is identified with Kale Tepe near modern Dikili. It flourished in the fourth century BC under Hermias, a friend of Aristotle, who stayed there and married Hermias's niece Pythias; the city was abandoned by the first century BC.

Klazomenai, at about 38.36 degrees, was one of the twelve cities of ancient Ionia, on the southern coast of the Gulf of Izmir near modern Urla. It moved from the mainland at Limantepe to Karantina Island during the Ionian Revolt, and according to Aristotle its citizens used olive oil to secure grain purchases around 350 BC.

Teos, at about 38.18 degrees, was another of the twelve cities of the Ionian League, built on an isthmus of a peninsula in what is now the Seferihisar district, south of Sığacık. It was founded by a mix of Minyans, Ionians and Boeotians, and the atlas records its founding as falling between 1050 and 1000 BC.

Alabanda, at about 37.59 degrees, was a Carian city near modern Cine, credited by tradition to the hero Alabandus. It belonged to the Chrysaorian League of Carian cities, was renamed Antiochia of the Chrysaorians under Antiochus III, and remains a titular see of the Catholic Church.

Alinda, at about 37.56 degrees, only slightly south of Alabanda, is a hilltop city of Caria near modern Karpuzlu. The Carian queen Ada held it as her stronghold and received Alexander the Great there in 334 BCE, and its ruins include a Roman theatre, an aqueduct, a marketplace and Carian tombs.

Knidos, at about 36.69 degrees, closes the path on the Datca peninsula as a member of the Dorian Hexapolis. It was famed for the Aphrodite of Knidos by the sculptor Praxiteles, known through Roman copies, and for the Lion of Knidos, a colossal marble monument now in the British Museum; a medical school operated there in the Hellenistic era.