Apollonia or Apollonia-on-the-Rhyndacus was an ancient town near the Rhyndacus river in northwestern Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

. Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

 placed it in Mysia

Mysia

Mysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia . It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara. It was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north...

, causing some to misidentify the site as Uluabat on the western shore of Lake Uluabat

Lake Uluabat

Lake Uluabat is the name of a freshwater lake in the vicinity of Bursa, Turkey. It is a large lake, covering an area of between 135 and 160 km² depending on the water level, but very shallow, being only 3 m deep at its deepest point. The lake contains eight islands and one other that is...

. However, the site is actually the promontory tombolo

Tombolo

A tombolo, from the Italian tombolo, derived from the Latin tumulus, meaning 'mound,' and sometimes translated as ayre , is a deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island...

 on the northeastern shore, near modern Gölyazı. The remains of Apollonia are inconsiderable. The Rhyndacus flows into the lake and issues from it a deep and muddy river. The lake extends from east to west and is studded with several islands in the northeast part, on one of which is Gölyazı, but the dimensions vary greatly through the seasons.

Greek colonization

Apollonia ad Rhyndacum is one of many ancient Greek cities that bear the name of Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

.

Inhabitants of Apollonia believed that their original colony had been founded by Miletus

Miletus

Miletus was an ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia , near the mouth of the Maeander River in ancient Caria...

 under the auspices of Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 of Didyma

Didyma

Didyma was an ancient Ionian sanctuary, the modern Didim, Turkey, containing a temple and oracle of Apollo, the Didymaion. In Greek didyma means "twin", but the Greeks who sought a "twin" at Didyma ignored the Carian origin of the name...

, so Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 was its archegetes.

The antiquity of the colony and of its name is supported by coins from as early as 450 BCE, which bear the anchor symbol of Apollo

Apollo

Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...

 and which have been attributed by some scholars to this Apollonia.

The city experienced prosperity under the Attalids during Hellenistic times.