Antandros lies on the southern skirts of Kaz Dağı, 2.5 kilometres east of Altınoluk in the Edremit district of Balıkesir, on the summit and western slopes of Kaletasi hill, which drops steeply to the sea at 215 metres. Its position was militarily strategic. The city is thought to have been founded in the tenth century BC, though the Ministry adds a qualified suggestion: given that nearby Assos has a history reaching back to the second millennium BC, Antandros may have been settled at that period too.
The most important of the remains is the well-preserved floor mosaic and the frescoes of a Roman villa dated to the first century AD. The necropolis, which was in use between the seventh and the second centuries BC, has been excavated, and the grave goods found there are displayed at the Bandırma Museum. The Çanakkale-Edremit road runs across the site, and local transport serves it.
Getting there
- Access
- Antandros is within the bounds of Altınoluk in the Edremit district, on the summit and western slopes of Kaletaşı hill, 215 metres above the sea, two and a half kilometres east of Altınoluk. The Çanakkale–Edremit road runs past it, and city transport also reaches it.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Balıkesir as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 4.9 °C in January to 25.7 °C in July; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, September and October; rainfall is heaviest in January (87 mm) and lightest in August (5 mm). Long-term means for 1999-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
