Fethiye Lycian Heritage: Patara the Longest Beach and Ancient Port, Xanthos Capital of Lycia, the Letoon Federal Sanctuary, Tlos the Hanging City, and the Lycian League Republican Tradition
The Fethiye Lycian heritage route covers Patara as the longest beach and ancient lighthouse port, Xanthos as the Lycian capital and the UNESCO site, the Letoon federal sanctuary of the Lycian League, the Tlos ancient city hanging above the valley, and the Lycian League as the world first democratic federation.
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Patara: The Longest Beach and the Ancient Lighthouse
Patara Beach, 18 kilometers from Fethiye, is the longest uninterrupted sandy beach in Turkey at 22 kilometers and the most important loggerhead sea turtle nesting beach in the eastern Mediterranean. The Patara ancient city adjacent to the beach was the most important harbor city of the Lycian League, the birthplace of Saint Nicholas (the historic Santa Claus, born here in 280 AD), and the seat of the Lycian League oracle of Apollo. The ancient lighthouse of Patara, built under the emperor Nero and recently reconstructed, was the first lighthouse in the Mediterranean to use a fire visible from 50 kilometers offshore.
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Xanthos: The Lycian Capital and the UNESCO Site
Xanthos, the capital of ancient Lycia and the most important single Lycian archaeological site, twice chose mass suicide over surrender in the documented battles with the Persian general Harpagos in 540 BC and the Roman Brutus in 42 BC, when the citizens burned their city and killed their families rather than become slaves - the Xanthian suicide (Xanthos ethos) becoming the most celebrated single example of collective heroic death in ancient history. The Xanthos UNESCO site contains the pillar tombs, the Harpy Tomb, the Nereid Monument base, and the Byzantine basilica in the most completely multi-period single archaeological site in Turkey south of Hierapolis.
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Letoon: The Federal Sanctuary of the Lycian League
The Letoon, 4 kilometers from Xanthos and UNESCO-inscribed alongside it, was the federal religious sanctuary of the Lycian League where the member cities gathered to honor Leto the mother of Apollo and Artemis in the three temples still partially standing on the sanctuary terrace. The Letoon inscription in Lycian, Greek, and Aramaic discovered in 1973 was the key text that allowed the Lycian language to be deciphered and the Lycian grammar to be reconstructed, making this trilingual stele the Rosetta Stone of the Anatolian languages. The Letoon nympheum mosaic in the large Roman fountain house is the finest single mosaic composition accessible in the Fethiye region.
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Tlos: The Hanging City Above the Valley
Tlos, one of the most important Lycian city-states, is positioned on the most dramatically vertical single ancient site in the Fethiye region, with the Lycian rock tombs, the Roman bath, the theatre, and the Ottoman fortress all stacked on the single cliff face above the Xanthos River valley. The Tlos site is visible from Xanthos across the valley as the hanging city on the opposite cliff and the combined visual of two major Lycian city-states facing each other across a single river valley is the most dramatically panoramic single ancient site view on the Turquoise Coast. The Bellerophon tomb with the relief of the hero and Pegasus is the most mythologically rich single tomb in Lycia.
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Lycian League: The World First Federal Democracy
The Lycian League, established in the 2nd century BC as the first documented federal democratic union in history, consisted of 23 city-states that voted in the federal assembly proportionally by city size - large cities three votes, medium cities two votes, small cities one vote - for the election of the federal executive (Lyciarch) and the federal judges and generals. This proportional representation federal democratic system was the direct model cited by the American founders James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers as the historical precedent for the federal democratic structure of the United States Constitution.
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Saklikent Gorge: The Canyon Adventure
Saklikent Gorge, 50 kilometers from Fethiye in the Taurus mountain foothills, is the longest single canyon gorge in Turkey at 18 kilometers and the most popular single outdoor adventure destination in the Fethiye region. The gorge entrance requires wading through the cold snow-melt stream at knee height through the 300-meter-high limestone walls of the narrowest single canyon section in Turkey. The platforms over the river at the gorge entrance serve the trout restaurants that are the most popular single luncheon destination for the Fethiye day trip to Saklikent, combining the canyon adventure with the mountain river dining experience.