Arycanda
Encyclopedia
Arykanda is an ancient Lycia
n city, built upon five large terraces ascending a mountain slope, located near the small village of Aykiriçay, on the Elmalı
-Finike
road in Antalya province
in south western Turkey
.
n origin; dating back as far as the second millennium BC. On the other hand, the oldest remains and finds from the city date from 6th/5th c. BCE. The site is being excavated and restored by an Ankara University team headed by Prof. Dr. Cevdet Bayburtluoglu since 1971.
Gods and goddesses known to have been worshipped here are:
Arykanda survived through Byzantine
times, until the 6th century when the settlement moved to a new site south of the modern road which is called Arif Settlement in archaeological literature so that it will not mix up with the older site.
houses Hellenistic and older remains of the site which include the temple of Helios
, bouleterion, prytaneion, upper agora withs its shops, and several excavated houses. The lower city houses most of the Roman remains.
These include:
Lycia
Lycia Lycian: Trm̃mis; ) was a region in Anatolia in what are now the provinces of Antalya and Muğla on the southern coast of Turkey. It was a federation of ancient cities in the region and later a province of the Roman Empire...
n city, built upon five large terraces ascending a mountain slope, located near the small village of Aykiriçay, on the Elmalı
Elmali
Elmalı is a town and district in Antalya Province, the Mediterranean region of Turkey. It lies about inland, near the town of Korkuteli and west of the city of Antalya...
-Finike
Finike
Finike, the ancient Phoenicus , is a district on the Mediterranean coast of Antalya Province of Turkey, 90 minutes west of the city of Antalya.Finike is located in the south of the Teke peninsula, and the coast here is a popular tourist destination...
road in Antalya province
Antalya Province
Antalya Province is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean sea.Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visiting Turkey. The province of Antalya corresponds to the lands of...
in south western Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
.
History
Arykanda is known to be one of the old Lycian cities, as its name ends with -anda, indicative of its AnatoliaAnatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
n origin; dating back as far as the second millennium BC. On the other hand, the oldest remains and finds from the city date from 6th/5th c. BCE. The site is being excavated and restored by an Ankara University team headed by Prof. Dr. Cevdet Bayburtluoglu since 1971.
Gods and goddesses known to have been worshipped here are:
Arykanda survived through Byzantine
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
times, until the 6th century when the settlement moved to a new site south of the modern road which is called Arif Settlement in archaeological literature so that it will not mix up with the older site.
Sights
AcropolisAcropolis
Acropolis means "high city" in Greek, literally city on the extremity and is usually translated into English as Citadel . For purposes of defense, early people naturally chose elevated ground to build a new settlement, frequently a hill with precipitous sides...
houses Hellenistic and older remains of the site which include the temple of Helios
Helios
Helios was the personification of the Sun in Greek mythology. Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion, while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn...
, bouleterion, prytaneion, upper agora withs its shops, and several excavated houses. The lower city houses most of the Roman remains.
These include:
- A bath complex on the lowest terrace, still virtually intact in its sequence of arches, next to the gymnasium. The city has 7 different bath houses of various sizes.
- Lower AgoraAgoraThe Agora was an open "place of assembly" in ancient Greek city-states. Early in Greek history , free-born male land-owners who were citizens would gather in the Agora for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the Agora also served as a marketplace where...
, some of the shops in its eastern part can still be seen. It is wide and flat, located to the south of the odeon and was enclosed on three sides by a portico. At its middle are the remains of Tyche Temple. - A theatre, in excellent condition, built during the 1st century BCE. It has 20 rows of seats, divided into 7 sections. At the edge of every row are holes that were used to support protective awnings.
- OdeonOdeon (building)Odeon is the name for several ancient Greek and Roman buildings built for singing exercises, musical shows and poetry competitions. They were generally small in size, especially compared with a full-size ancient Greek theatre....
- 2nd century AD. The main entrance is to the south, though a triple portal. This was once a very ornate building, the interior was lined with orthostats and the walls, orchestra and seats were once covered with coloured marble. A block that was discovered (and now housed in Antalya Archaeological Museum) during the excavations over the portal bears a portrait of the Emperor Hadrian. - A stadium, from the Hellenistic period, that resides above the theatre, in the form of a running track with seats built only on one side. It is smaller than a usual stadium, measuring 106 m. long and 17 m. wide.
- NecropolisNecropolisA necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead"...
es, there are two of them, and the one on the entrance to the site is very interesting with its series of richly decorated funerary monuments. The eastern necropolis has barrel-vaulted monumental tombs, temple-tombs and sarcophagi and the western necropolis has rock-cut tombs and barrel-valuted tombs.