Xanthos Ancient City

Located on the Fethiye-Kaş highway, in the town of Kınık, 46 km from Fethiye, the city was founded on two hills overlooking the plain on the side of the Xanthos River (Eşen Stream). The first is the Lycian Acropolis, surrounded by a wall rising from the edge of the Eşen Stream in the form of a steep cliff, and the second is the Roman Acropolis, which is higher and wider in the north. The name of Xanthos, which is described as the administrative center of the Lycian League, is mentioned as ARNNA in the inscriptions written in Lycian language. Homer tells that Xathos people under the rule of Sarpedon participated in the Trojan wars. However, the finds obtained in the excavations do not allow the settlement of the city before the 8th century BC.

City, BC. It is besieged by the Persian Commander Harpagos in 545-546. Despite their heroic resistance and resistance, the Xanthosites, when they are helpless, kill their women and children and set the city on fire, leaving an uninhabited and devastated city in Harpagos. Between 475 and 450 BC, Xanthos encounters a fire disaster this time. Alexander the Great took the city in 334 BC. After the death of Alexander, Xathos was ruled by the Egyptian Dynasty Ptolemys from 309 BC, and then by the Syrian King III, like many Lycian cities. He had to accept the sovereignty of Antiochus. Xanthos, which was the capital of the Lycian League in the 2nd century BC, was destroyed this time by the Roman Brutus in 42 BC, but then the Emperor. It was reconstructed with the efforts of Mark Antony. In the 1st century AD, an arch was built in the name of Emperor Vespasian in Xanthos under Roman rule, and most of the Roman structures that have survived to the present day were built in this period. Xanthos, which was the episcopacy center during the Byzantine rule, gained many new structures in this period. After the 7th century, the Arab raids caused the city to lose its importance and it continued its life in Kınık, which is next to it, as a small village until the Charles Fellows discovered this place in 1938 and moved some of its ruins to London.

Both acropolises of Xanthos are surrounded by fortification walls with different knitting systems. To the north of the Lycian acropolis is the Roman Period Theater. The most interesting ruins of Xanthos are located to the west of the theatre. The first of these has the "Harpy" reliefs, which are creatures with female bodies, bird wings, and the dead family on a high rectangular monolithic pedestal, which are believed to carry the souls of the dead to the sky. The Harpy Monument, whose original reliefs are exhibited in the British Museum today, is dated to the 5th century BC. Next to this mausoleum is another 4th century Lycian sarcophagus with a pedestal. The square-shaped large area at the end of the theater is the Roman Age Agora, surrounded by shops on three sides. In the northeast corner of the agora, a monumental tomb from the 5th century BC rises, very similar to the Harpy Monument, with an inscription written in Lycian and Greek in its monolithic rectangular body. The inscription on the body of the monument is the longest inscription in the Lycian language ever found, and it describes the adventures of the Xanthos prince named Kherei. It is possible to see many rock tombs and pedestal tombs side by side in the Roman Acropolis. Except for the pedestals of the Lion Tomb, Pavaya and Merehi sarcophagi on the southern skirts of this area, all of them are exhibited in the British Museum. The Nereid Monument, with a temple plan of the 4th century BC, on the right side of the ramp that leads to today's ruins, is one of the famous monuments of Xanthos, which is exhibited in the British Museum. The Xanthos archaeological site has been included in the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO because of the originality of the Lycian civilization and the importance of the finds obtained during the excavations.