Editing Nicaea (section)

==Ruins==
===City walls===
[[File:Iznik Wall at Lefke Gate 8274.jpg|thumb|right|İznik Walls at the Lefke Gate]]
The ancient walls, with their towers and gates, are relatively well preserved. Their circumference is {{convert|3100|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}, being at the base from {{convert|5|to|7|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} in thickness, and from {{convert|10|to|13|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} in height; they contain four large and two small gates. In most places they are formed of alternate courses of Roman tiles and large square stones, joined by a cement of great thickness. In some places columns and other architectural fragments from the ruins of more ancient edifices have been inserted. As with those of Constantinople, the walls seem to have been built in the 4th century. Some of the towers have [[Byzantine Greek language|Greek]] inscriptions.<ref name="Comp. pp. 10">Comp. [[William Martin Leake]], ''Asia Minor'', pp. 10, foll.; Von Prokesch-Osten, ''Erinnerungen'', iii. pp. 321,foll.; [[Richard Pococke]], ''Journey in Asia Minor'', iii. pp. 181, foll.; Walpole,'Turkey'[', ii. p. 146; Eckhel, ''Doctr. Num.'' i. pp. 423, foll.; Rasche, ''Lexic. Rei Num.'' iii. l. pp. 1374, foll.</ref>

===Inner city structures===
The ruins of mosques, baths, and houses, dispersed among the gardens and apartment buildings that now occupy a great part of the space within the Roman and Byzantine fortifications, show that the Ottoman-era town center, though now less considerable, was once a place of importance; but it never was as large as the Byzantine city. It seems to have been almost entirely constructed of the remains of the Byzantine-era Nicaea, the walls of the ruined mosques and baths being full of the fragments of ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine temples and churches.<ref name="Comp. pp. 10"/>

In the northwestern parts of the town, two moles extend into the lake and form a harbour; but the lake in this part has much retreated, and left a marshy plain. Outside the walls are the remnants of an ancient aqueduct.<ref name="Comp. pp. 10"/>

===Church of the Dormition===
[[File:Church of the Dormition in Nicaea.jpg|thumb|Church of the Dormition in Nicaea.]]

The Church of the Dormition, the principal Greek Orthodox church in Nicaea, was one of the most architecturally important Byzantine churches in [[Asia Minor]]. A domed church with a cross-shaped nave and elongated apse, and dating from the perhaps as early as the end of the 6th century, its bema was decorated with very fine mosaics that had been restored in the 9th century. The Church of the Dormition was destroyed by the Turks in 1922; only the lower portions of some of its walls survive today.<ref name=Mango90>Cyril Mango, "Byzantine Architecture", p. 90.</ref>

===Ottoman kilns===
[[File:Iznik Kilns excavations 8296.jpg|thumb|250px|Iznik kilns excavations]]

Excavations are underway in the Ottoman kilns where the historic Nicean tiles were made.

===Hagia Sophia church===
[[File:Hagia Sophia Iznik.JPG|right|thumb|250px|[[Hagia Sophia, İznik|Hagia Sophia]] in 2012]]

The [[Hagia Sophia, İznik|Hagia Sophia]] church of Nicaea is undergoing restoration.

===Underwater basilica===
Under the shallow waters on the margin of Lake Iznik, at a site still located on firm ground on the lakeshore in Byzantine times, the ruins of a 4th-century basilica were found. It might well be the site of the [[First Council of Nicaea]].<ref>[https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/church-site-christianitys-most-important-13257544.amp Church that was 'site of some of Christianity's most important events' discovered under lake in Turkey]. By Elaine McCahill for [[Daily Mirror|The Mirror]], 16 Sep 2018. Accessed 3 Sep 2023.</ref>

===Herakles relief===
Eight kilometers from the city there is an ancient, human-size, [[Herakles]] relief engraved on a rock.<ref>[https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/2-000-year-old-hercules-relief-damaged-156765 2,000-year-old Hercules relief damaged]</ref>