AbstractThe early Miocene sedimentary succession in the northeast-southwest trending Gördes basin is 1000 m thick and divided into the Daĝdere, Tepeköy and Kuşlukköy formations. The age of this fill can be constrained as between 24.2 Ma and 16.3 Ma, at its widest interval. Paleocurrent directions from south to north demonstrate that the basin had a north dipping basin floor. These observations are inconsistent with a previous model of the Gordes basin as a cross graben with a south dipping basin floor, towards the Alaşehir graben, and an anomalously thick (up to 3000 m) basin filling.