Limyra Antik Kenti – Places to Visit

Limyra Ancient City, located in Saklısu in Antalya’s Finike district, includes the acropolis, where early period buildings are generally located, on the southern skirts of Toçak Mountain, and the area within the Roman and Byzantine period walls, on the plain separated by the highway, just south of it. The name of Limyra is mentioned as “Zemuri” in Lycian inscriptions. This is evidence that the city has been inhabited since at least the 5th century BC.

The most active period of the city was in the first half of the 4th century BC, during the time of the Lycian King Perikle, during which time Limyra was the capital of Lycia. From historical records about the region; Persian domination was in question during the years when Pericle was trying to form the Lycian Union and expand his sovereignty; However, it is understood that this sovereignty remained only nominal, and Limyra, like other cities, remained in great freedom.

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Limyra, which experienced its bright era after the Periclean period in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, was rebuilt even though it was damaged by earthquakes from time to time. The city, which was a bishopric center during Byzantine rule, was abandoned after Arab raids in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The findings from different periods, unearthed as a result of the excavations carried out in the city, have both shed light on the history of the region and brought very important works to the Antalya Museum. The acropolis, located in the northernmost part of the ancient city, consists of an inner castle and a lower castle in the north. In the lower castle, there are walls, cisterns, a Byzantine church and Perikle Heroon. The architecture of the mausoleum of King Pericles, dating back to the 4th century BC, is similar to the Nereid Monument in Xanthos, and important parts of it are exhibited in the Antalya Museum. Limyra is one of the cities with the most rock tombs in the Lycian Region. There are more than four hundred rock tombs in the ancient city, and most of them are known by name with their inscriptions written in Lycian language.

Right next to the Turunçova-Kumluca highway, where the acropolis reaches the plain, there is a theater building, which originally belonged to the Hellenistic period and underwent a major restoration in 141 AD. South of the highway; It is divided into two separate islands, east and west, by the Limyros Stream. The area within the Early Byzantine Period walls in the west of Limyros contains older ruins than those in the east.

A structure called “Ptolemaion” was unearthed within the southern wall of the city wall. This monument, built during the Hellenistic Period, and its plastic artifacts exhibited in the Antalya Museum are the most important finds unearthed during the Limyra excavations in recent years. Another important structure in this area is the monumental tomb of Gaius Caesar, the adopted son of Emperor Augustus, built in 4 AD. This monument was built because Gaius Caesar died in Limyra while returning from Jerusalem to Rome. His body or the urn containing his ashes was taken to Rome and a monumental tomb without his body was built in his memory. In addition to its architecture, the monument is also famous for the marble reliefs surrounding it, of which the high relief exhibited in the Antalya Museum is perfect for staging the realism of the Augustan Period.