Priene (Ancient Greek: Πριήνη, romanized: Priēnē; Turkish: Prien) was an ancient Greek city of Ionia (and member of the Ionian League) located at the base of an escarpment of Mycale, about 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) north of what was then the course of the Maeander River (now called the Büyük Menderes or "Big Maeander").

It is located at a short distance west of the modern village Güllübahçe Turun in the Söke district of Aydın Province, Turkey.

Priene never held a great deal of political importance due to the city's relatively limited size, as it is believed around four to five thousand inhabitants occupied the region.

This location caused insuperable environmental difficulties, due to slow aggradation of the riverbed and progradation in the direction of the Aegean Sea.

Knowledge of the average rate of progradation is the basis for estimating the location of the city, which was moved closer to the water again every few centuries in order to operate as a port.

[2] At about 350 BCE the Persian-empire satrap, Mausolus (a Carian), planned a magnificent new city on the steep slopes of Mycale.

He hoped it could be a permanent deep-water port (similar to the many Greek island cities, located on and up seaside escarpments).

Construction had begun when the Macedonians took the region from the Persian Empire, and Alexander the Great personally assumed responsibility for the development.

Alexander offered to pay for construction of the Temple of Athena to designs of the noted architect Pytheos, if it would be dedicated by him, which it was, in 323 BCE.

The leading citizens were quick to follow suit: most of the public buildings were constructed at private expense and are inscribed with the names of the donors.

Foundations, paved streets, stairways, partial door frames, monuments, walls, terraces can be seen everywhere among toppled columns and blocks.

In the 2nd century CE Pausanias reports that the Maeander already had silted over the inlet in which Myus stood, and that the population had abandoned it for Miletus.

In the 4th century BCE, Priene was a deep-water port with two harbours overlooking the Bay of Miletus[6] and, somewhat further east, the marshes of the Maeander Delta.

Priene was a wealthy city, as the plenitude of fine urban homes in marble and the private dedications of public buildings suggests.

Priene's location was appropriate in that regard; they captured springs and streams on Mycale, brought the water in by aqueduct to cisterns, and piped or channeled from there to houses and fountains.

Although the stereotyped equation of wealth with aristocracy may have applied early in Priene's history, in the 4th century BCE the city-state was a democracy.

State authority resided in a body called the Πριηνείς (Priēneis), "the Prieneian people", who issued all decrees and other public documents in their name.

The day-to-day legislative and executive business was conducted by a boulē, or city council, which met in a bouleuterion, a space like a small theatre with a wooden roof.

For example, the property rights and tax responsibilities of a non-Prieneian section of the population living in the countryside, the pedieis, "plainsmen", were defined by law.

Priene was said to have been first settled by Ionians under Aegyptus, a son of Belus and grandson of King Codrus, in the 11th century BCE.

After successive attacks by Cimmerians, Lydians under Ardys, and Persians, it survived and prospered under the direction of its "sage," Bias, during the middle of the 6th century BCE.

Orophernes, the rebellious brother of the Cappadocian king, who had deposited a treasure there and recovered it by Roman intervention, restored the Temple of Athena as a thank-offering.

In the western half of the city, on a high terrace north of the main street and approached by a fine stairway, was the temple of Athena Polias.

It was a hexastyle peripteral structure in the Ionic order built by Pytheos, the architect of the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halikarnassos, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.