After twisting its way for 600 kilometres, the river reaches the Aegean Sea at last. Weary after its long journey from the interior, its waters calm down at last. The winding course of the river from its source near Dinar in the province of Afyon is what inspired its ancient name Maiandros, from which the Turkish name Büyük Menderes, or Great Meander, is derived. Over 23 million years the Büyük Menderes carried silt down to the Aegean coast, and the alluvium it deposited there eventually filled in the large bay and created a delta of extraordinary beauty.

DESTROYER OF ANCIENT CITIES
The Büyük Menderes was a force for both good and evil in human history. It not only caused flood damage, but by stranding the Ionian port cities of Priene, Myus and Miletus
inland brought about their decline, just as the Küçük Menderes (the ancient Cayster) silted up the harbour at Ephesus and caused the city to be abandoned.