Sinuri

Sinuri (Ancient Greek: Σινυρι) was a sanctuary of the god Sinuri in ancient Caria, Anatolia. The ruins of Sinuri are located on the hilltop now called Tarla Tepe, close to the modern village of Çamlıbelen, Milas, Muğla Province, Turkey. It was an active religious centre for over a thousand years, from the Archaic period to late antiquity. The community at Sinuri erected a large number of inscriptions from the 4th to the 1st centuries BCE, and it is one of the most important known find-sites for inscriptions in the Carian language. Extensive excavations halted in 1937 and organised archaeological activity only resumed in 2022.

Sinuri was situated in a mountain pass in central Caria. Although two Neolithic stone axes show the age of the site, the archaeological evidence only proves that Sinuri experienced sporadic inhabitation as a natural refuge from the Geometric period onwards. A temenos wall from the 7th century BCE demonstrates that Sinuri had become was a developed religious space. Regular religious activity would have been conducted in the open, perhaps in a sacred grove, as excavations have found no evidence of Archaic buildings within the outer temenos walls. Sacred...