OLYMPOS
It is necessary to take the road where the signboard of
ruins is situated after Ulupinar in order to go to Olympos through
Antalya-Finike road. The road which is narrow but wonderful leads us to the
beach of Olympos. One should pass the brook, walk a little on the wide beach
and then arrive at the brook flowing through Olympos in order to arrive at
the ruins. The pathway going by the brook will take us to the ruins.
Olympos was founded during the Hellenistic Period. We
perceive the presence of Olympos by means of the coins belonging to the
Lycian Union plunked down in the II. Century B.C. Olympos was the one of the
most leading six cities of the Union which owned the right of three votes in
100 B.C. Pirates picked on Olympos in the I. Century B.C., and the city
turned out to be a place where pirates dwelled. The Roman Commander
Servilius Isaurieus cleaned the city from pirates and included the city in
the Roman lands in 78 B.C. and the city acquired a great fame by means of
the cult of blacksmith god Hephaistos in Cirali, where natural gases
combust, during the Roman period.
We can see that Opramas from Rhodiapolis, who is known
with the restorations and helps at all Lycian cities, also gave Olympos a
helping hand in the II. Century B.C. and ensured that many buildings were
restored and rebuilt. Thus, this century constituted the period when Olympos
enjoyed the most beautiful years in welfare. During the third century, the
pirates picked on Olympos again. The continual pirate raids plagued the city
very soon and impoverished it of all its glory and importance. After that,
the city went on living as an unimportant and small city.
Although the city leaped up a bit during the Medieval
Age, when the knights of Venice, Genoese and Rhodes were running wild in the
Mediterranean, it lost its significance more and more after the Ottoman
Empire subordinated all in the sea and it was abandoned in the XV. Century.
Olympos is spreaded on each side of the small brook
which flows through it. The high hill that can be seen from the beach, as
well, and that is situated on the graves is the acropolis of Olympos. The
ruins on this hill belong to city walls which were transformed into a castle
during the Medieval Age. You can watch the beautiful scene of Venice-like
river when you look around on top of this hill. The river has been converted
to be a channel by means of the walls built with a polygonal technique on
each side and the two sides have been united by means of the bridge whose
imprints can be seen today, as well.
The building having windows which is situated on the
other side of the river, immediately by the sea consists of ruins of the
city bath. One can pass to this coastline of Olympos through stepping on the
big rocks in the river. There is the theatre of Olympos here, which is hard
to visit because of brushwood's. The vaulted parodoses of the theatre, the
orchestra and the pieces of ornamented door and niche scattered around prove
that this place once hosted a typical Roman Period theatre. The basilica and
city wall belonging to the Byzantine Period, and the ruins of bath by the
river are situated between the theatre and the sea. The vaulted parodoses of
the theatre, the orchestra and the pieces of ornamented door and niche
scattered around prove that this place once hosted a typical Roman Period
theatre. The basilica belonging to Byzantine period is situated between the
theatre and the sea while the city wall belonging to the Byzantine period
and the bath by the river consists of the ruins of another splendid
building. As can be perceived through the large space in the middle, the
agora and gymnasion of the city must have been located here.
CIRALI -YANARTAS
We also strongly recommend you to visit Cirali, which
is an-hour far away from Adrasan. There are splendid scenes in Cirali, where
the gases coming from the vents of rocks continuously combust. It has turned
out to be a tradition to roast and eat sausage, and sip the wine you take
with you when you go there. The mythological story of Yanartaş is as below:
A young man of heavenly beauty, called Belleropphontes
lived in Argos, which is connected to Greece. This young man ran after
Pegasus resolutely for days since he wanted to own Pegasos, which was a
flying winged horse, so badly; but he couldn’t achieve to catch it. One day,
the gods informed him about how to own the flying horse in his dream.
Finally, he did what the gods wanted him to do and thus he could achieve to
catch the horse by means of the golden curb while the horse was drinking
water.
However, one day, Bellerophontes killed someone by
accident. Because of this reason, he left Argos and took shelter in the
palace of Proitos, the king of Tiryns. The queen fell in love with this
handsome young man very soon. She wanted to make love with him. But,
Bellerophontes didn’t want to disrespect the owner of the home where he was
just a guest and so he declined the wish of the queen. And the queen wanted
to take revenge on him by way of telling lie to her husband and telling him
that Bellerophontes wanted to go to bed with her by force. Although the king
got angry with Bellerophontes, he didn’t want to kill his guest and send him
with a letter to his father-in-law who was the king of Lycia.
Bellerophontes arrived at Lycia. The King met him near
the river of Xanthos and put him up for nine days. On the ninth day, he
received the letter of his son-in-law and understood that it was necessary
to kill Bellerophontes. But, he couldn’t kill him, as well, and wanted
Chimera to kill him. He planned to get rid of him through that way. Chimera
was a fire breathing monstrous creature whose body was made up of the head
of a lion, the torso of a goat and the tail of a serpent. Bellerophontes
laid Chimera low thanks to the wishes of the gods and his winged horse,
Pegasus. Although the King set Bellerophontes many other difficult tasks, he
could overcome all of them.
Then, the King believed that he was descended from the gods and decided to
honour him and gave one of his daughters in marriage with him.
Bellerophontes was descended from Poseidon. He had three children in this
marriage. One of these three children, his daughter Laodameia made love with
Zeus and gave birth to Sarpedon upon this love. Sarpedon became the king of
Lycia when he grew up. He attended the War of Troy.
He jumped on those who were the remainders of the war
by saying, “I came from far away for help, from Xanthos from Anafora, from
the far Lycia…” and he was killed by Patroklos, who was fighting with the
weapons of Akhilleus. He granted his task to Glaukos before he breathed his
last and then he died. Zeus ordered Apollon to take the dead body of his son
to Lycia.
Thus, Chimera, who was born after underground creatures Typhon and Ekhidna
united, used to live on the mountains called Cirali and Yanartas, which can
be seen from Olympos today. Chimera, who was killed by Bellerophontes on his
winged horse Pegasus, was still breathing fire while it was breathing his
last. Today, the fact that natural gases coming from the vents among rocks
combust is united with this myth.
PHASELIS
When we take the way where the signboard of Phaselis is
situated 35 km before Antalya on the recently built coastal road which shows
all the beauties of Mediterranean, a forest road takes us to Phaselis,
located within the village of Tekirova.
The coastal city of Phaselis was founded around VII.
Century B.C. although the Beldibi Cave near the city proved the existence of
prehistoric dwellers. Phaselis was founded as the colony of Rhodians in 690
B.C. Because of the fact that it owned three harbors, it was of an important
location and it was close to the rich forest lands. Phaselis, which was
earning its keep by sea in the VII. And VI. Centuries B.C., was occupied by
the Persians after they dominated the Anatolia, and by Alexander after he
defeated the Persians. However, the people of Phaselis welcomed Alexander
and hosted him in their city. Alexander accepted many of the messengers of
Pamphlia cities here and went to Gordion by conquering the cities on the
coastal line one by one.
The city remained under the control of Ptolemaios in
Egypt between the years of 309 and 197 B.C. after Alexander died, was given
to the Kingdom of Rhodes as was the case with other Lycia cities by means of
Apameia Peace Treaty, and was ruled over by the Rhodians between the years
of 190 and 160 B.C. The city entered into the Lycian Union under the control
of Rome after 160 B.C. Phaselis was subject to continual pirate raids
together with Olympos during the I. Century B.C. and the city, which
remained under the control of Zenekites for a while, disyoked after the
Romans defeated this pirate.
Brutus included the city in Rome in 42 B.C. on the
other hand, Phaselis turned out to be the Center of Bishopric during the
Byzantine Period. The city, which was subject to pirate raids again in the
III. Century A.D. because of its convenient harbors, lost its significance
after that. While it got poorer and poorer because of the next Arabian
raids, it could hardly survive in the XI. Century A.D. It lost all its
significance and faded away as the Seljuqs attached importance to the
harbors of Alanya and Antalya.
While Phaselis used to meet its need for water through
wells and reservoirs, it met the need for water by bringing water to the
city from far away by means of aqueducts as was the case with all the cities
during the Roman Period. They brought water from a spring located in the
north of the city to the hill located behind the Hadiran Agora through
aqueducts, and distributed the water to the city through clay water pipes
and channels.
The basic ruins of the city are located on both sides of the main road that
connects the military port and South port. There exist footpaths of three
stairs high on both sides of the main road which is 125 m long and 20-25 m
wide. After the main road forms a square in the middle, it leads to the
South port. Sanitary sewerage and dewatering systems are located under this
road which is floored with smooth stones.
The book called
“Işık Ülkesi LYKIA” by ilhan Aksit has been resorted in order to prepare
this page... | 
