The Photography of Nicolas Sapieha: Turkey's Lycian Coast


Turkey's Lycian Coast 2	"The Photography of Nicolas Sapieha" February 13, 1998

We sailed on to Kalkan, a modern harbor and gateway to the Xanthus Valley. From here one can hire a car and driver to go to the Lycian cities of Patara and Xanthus, a sanctuary at Letoon, and, farther inland, to Pinara and Tlos. We arrived in Kalkan in midday, and drove to Xanthus, Lycian Arnña, the region's chief city in antiquity; the broad valley of the Xanthus River was known for its rich farmland. In 545 B.C. the Persian general Harpagus besieged Xanthus whose inhabitants resisted fiercely. When it was clear that the battle was lost, the Xanthian men killed their wives, children, and slaves and then attacked the Persians one last time. According to Herodotus, only 80 Xanthian families, who were out of the city at the time of the battle, survived. By the time Alexander marched through Lycia in 333 B.C., Xanthus had recovered. Plutarch says that a spring near Xanthus overflowed at about this time, disgorging a copper plate engraved with a prediction that the Greeks would destroy the Persian empire. Heeding the omen Xanthus submitted peacefully to Alexander. It was, however, one of the few cities in the region to remain loyal to Rome when in 88 B.C. Mithridates overran Anatolia. In 43 B.C., however, it refused money and men to pro-Republic forces engaged in civil war with the triumvirate of Octavian, Antony, and Lepidus. Besieged and hopelessly outnumbered by Brutus' army, the Xanthians again committed collective suicide. Plutarch observed:

Thus the Xanthians after a long space of years, the fated period of their destruction having, as it were, run its course, repeated by their desperate deed the former calamity of their forefathers, who after the very same manner in the Persian war had fired their city and destroyed themselves.

View through the east portal of the mid-second-century A.D. theater at Xanthos [LARGER IMAGE]

The monuments of Xanthus include a Roman theater, an arched gateway built in A.D. 80 and dedicated to Emperor Vespasian, and two unique tombs. The Pillar Tomb, originally 34 feet tall, bears an inscription in Greek and Lycian recording the deeds of its occupant, a member of a Lycian dynasty in the later fifth century B.C. The Harpy Tomb, dated to the early fifth century, is known for its marble reliefs depicting sirens, originally misidentified by scholars as Harpies, carrying off souls of the dead. The reliefs, now in the British Museum, have been replaced by casts.

Hellenistic Lycian tomb (left) [LARGER IMAGE] fifth-century B.C. Harpy tomb (right) [LARGER IMAGE]

Charles Fellows, the son of an English merchant and banker, visited the ruins of Xanthus and other sites in 1838. Ancient Lycia's remains enthralled Fellows, and he undertook a second journey in 1839, hunting for the cities mentioned in Pliny's Natural History. On his return, Fellows wrote:

I am once more in my favorite city, the first in which I became acquainted with the remains of art of the ancient Lycians, and in which I hope to find still more, embodying their language, history, and poetic sculpture. How might the classic enthusiast revel in the charms of this city and in its neighbourhood! With Mount Cragus before him, he might conjure up all the chimaeras of its fabulous history.

Fellow's accounts of his travels created great interest in London, leading to expeditions by the British Museum in 1841 and 1843. Fellows recorded the sites in great detail, copying inscriptions and making casts of the monuments. With permission of Turkish authorities, the museum expeditions removed numerous sculptures from Xanthus. A limestone base is all that remains at the site of the Nereid Monument; the sculptures that once adorned this royal tomb are now in the British Museum. It was probably built by Erbbina, who ruled over western Lycia in the early fourth century B.C. Resembling a temple, the monument displayed statues of nereids, daughters of the sea god Nereus, and perhaps divine escorts for the deceased's soul. On the east pediment the dead king appeared surrounded by family and courtiers or servants, and on the west pediment he was shown in battle. The friezes depicted hunting, fighting, and banqueting. The sculptures were the talk of London when they were first displayed at the British Museum in 1844.

The French Archaeological Institute has excavated at Xanthus for more than 30 years. Directed by Christian Le Roy, the institute has recently investigated the paved road at the Vespasian gate, recovered mosaics and architectural and sculpture fragments from a Byzantine church, and traced a Hellenistic and Roman aqueduct that fed the baths nearly five miles to a mountain spring. The French are also investigating the sanctuary at Letoon two and one-half miles southwest of Xanthus. Dedicated to the nymph Leto and her children, Artemis and Apollo, it was the Lycian League's federal sanctuary. A 110-line inscription recently found there describes the boundary between the Lycian League and Termessus Minor, a colony of the Pisidian city of Termessus, and specifies fines for border violations. In 1995 excavations began in the stage and orchestra of Letoon's theater.

From Xanthus we backtracked about seven miles to the south to Patara, Lycian Pttara, the region's chief port. The provincial capital during Vespasian's reign, it also housed the archives of the Lycian League. It was a metropolis in the Early Christian period, and was later celebrated as the birthplace of Saint Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop of Myra.

The arch of Mettius Modestus, governor of Lycia and Pamphylia, dates from ca. A.D. 100. Busts of Modestus and his family once occupied the niches in the arch. [LARGER IMAGE]

At Patara, we came first to the imposing arch of Mettius Modestus, governor of the Roman province of Lycia-Pamphylia ca. A.D. 100. The empty niches on the arch once held busts of Modestus and his family. Most of the remains here are from the Roman period. Between the arch and the theater, near the east edge of the harbor mouth, are baths, a Byzantine basilica, a colonnaded street, and a council house. On the western edge of the harbor are a granary, lighthouse, and temple tomb. The ancient harbor is now a reed-filled bog closed off from the sea by sand dunes. Recent work at Patara by Turkish archaeologist Fahri Isik, from Akdeniz Universitesi, Antalya, has included a survey as well as excavations of the area near the arch; Lycian, Roman and Byzantine tombs; a Late Antique-Byzantine residential area; and two Hellenistic temples. Restoration efforts are focused on the Roman baths, Byzantine basilica, and ancient main street. French satellite images are being used to study changes in the course of Xanthus River and filling in of the harbor at Patara. The harbor nearly proved a disaster for us. Lured by the impressive facade of Roman granary across what appeared to be solid ground, Nick strode forward only to sink into several feet of the muck that now fills the harbor basin. Heroically, he handed me the camera and tripod first, allowing himself to be pulled out of the quagmire only after the gear was safe.

Lycian tomb at Pinara with ox horns carved above doorway [LARGER IMAGE]

From Patara we drove up the Xanthus Valley, turning off onto a steep unpaved road to visit the theater and tombs at Pinara. Ancient sources tell us Pinara was one of the most important Lycian cities. George Fellows hunted for Pinara in 1838 but was unable to find it, making the discovery on his second trip. The so-called Royal Tomb, possibly the burial place of a prince, is notable for its carved panels depicting four walled Lycian cities. The identity of the cities remains unclear. George Bean notes that Pinara can not be one of them since it was never walled, its 1,500-foot-high acropolis having served as a formidable bastion from invaders. Along the sheer east face of the acropolis early Pinarans cut hundreds of unadorned tombs. The workers who created them presumably were lowered from above on ropes. Here, however, the sun and orientation of the cliff were against us. We arrived too late to get a decent shot of the cliff. Nick did his best, but the afternoon light was unforgiving.

Leaving the Xanthus Valley, we sailed from Kalkan, rounded the rocky cape of Uluburun and headed toward the ruins of Aperlae. A Late Bronze Age wreck, discovered at Uluburun by a Turkish sponge diver in 1982, was excavated by Cemal Pulak and George Bass of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University, work there ending in 1994. The ship, some 50 to 60 feet long, went down ca. 1400 B.C. in 150 of water. The vessel was a storehouse of luxury goods: a gold cup and four gold medallions; scarabs of Nefertiti and Tuthmosis I; a bronze statuette of a woman or goddess covered with gold foil; and various carved ivory objects and a trumpet carved out of a hippopotamus incisor. Many of the items recovered from the wreck were normally perishable organic materials such as terebinth resin (used as incense), ebony logs, and pellets of processed murex dye. More than 350 ingots of tin and bronze have also been recovered, as well as turquoise, cobalt, and purple glass ingots. Personal equipment for the crew, such as galley wares, tools, and weapons, suggests a Syro-Palestinian origin for the ship. The cargo may have been a consignment of royal gifts such as those described in correspondence found in the Egyptian royal archive at Tell el Amarna.

The cape and nearby rocky islands make navigation tricky here, and anyone sailing along this stretch of coast would have done well to keep farther out to sea. Pulak and Bass suspect the ship was traveling east to west when it struck the cape and sank. Perhaps the Uluburun ship passed near the cape because it was heading toward, or leaving from, the harbor of Aperlae. There are, however, no pre-Hellenistic remains at that site, and its harbor faces the open sea, offering little shelter.

The coastal settlement of Aperlae is thought to have been a production center for purple dye. [LARGER IMAGE]

Aperlae, a small Hellenistic through seventh-century A.D. site, is on a ridge that projects into the Mediterranean forming one side of a small inlet. According to Strabo, it was united with the nearby towns of Simena, Isinda, and Apollonia as a sympolity, a civic union of small towns. Together the four towns shared one vote in matters before the Lycian League. Aperlae's ruins--defensive walls, baths, churches, a possible agora, and numerous tombs and cisterns--have recently been surveyed by Robert Hohfelder of the University of Colorado and Robert Vann of the University of Maryland. The town's waterfront structures are now submerged, the result of coastal instability. Immense middens of murex shells suggest that the city manufactured purple dye, a prized commodity in the ancient world. Today, the site is becoming a popular stop for those sailing along the coast or on day trips out of Kas. It may soon face the same pressures from too many visitors that Gemiler Island does now.

A well-preserved Lycian tomb at Aperlae [LARGER IMAGE]

From Aperlae we sailed to Kekova Bay and the small Lycian coastal cities of Simena and Teimiussa. Simena has a small medieval castle within which is a diminutive ancient theater with scarcely a dozen rows of seats. A tower from Teimiussa's city walls is still standing. There are submerged ruins along the shore, but having seen the ruins underwater at Gemiler and Aperlae, those at Kekova were of less interest and the place was of less charm.

Section 3