Lagina

Lagina or Laginia was a town and religious centre in ancient Caria [1]. It contained an important monumental temple of Hecate, at which great festivals were celebrated every year [1]. For most of antiquity, it was a part of the territory of Stratonicea [1]. Its site is located near Turgut, Anatolia [1]. Little is known about the early history of Lagina as a town and religious sanctuary, although it existed as early as the 4th century BCE [1]. Lagina became one of the major rural cult centres of the polis of Stratonicea [1]. The British archaeologist Charles Thomas Newton found over thirty inscriptions and nine decorated frieze blocks at the site in 1856 [1]. Authorised excavations began at Lagina in 1891 under the direction of Osman Hamdi Bey [1].