Lycia
Lycia was a historical region in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is today the provinces of Antalya and Muğla in Turkey as well some inland parts of Burdur Province. The region was known to history from the Late Bronze Age records of ancient Egypt and the Hittite Empire.
Lycia was populated by speakers of Luwic languages. Written records began to be inscribed in stone in the Lycian language after Lycia's involuntary incorporation into the Achaemenid Empire in the Iron Age. At that time the Luwian speakers were displaced as Lycia received an influx of Persian speakers.
The many cities in Lycia were wealthy as shown by their elaborate architecture starting at least from the 5th century BC and extending to the Roman period.
Lycia fought for the Persians in the Persian Wars, but on the defeat of the Achaemenid Empire by the Greeks, it became intermittently a free agent. After a brief membership in the Athenian Empire, it seceded and became independent, was under the Persians again, revolted again, was conquered by Mausolus of Caria, returned to the Persians, and finally fell under Macedonian hegemony upon the defeat of the Persians by Alexander the Great. Due to the influx of Greek speakers and the sparsity of the remaining Lycian speakers, Lycia was rapidly Hellenized under the Macedonians, and the Lycian language disappeared from inscriptions and coinage.
On defeating Antiochus III the Great in 188 BC, the Roman Republic gave Lycia to Rhodes for 20 years, taking it back in 168 BC. In these latter stages of the Roman Republic, Lycia came to enjoy freedom as a Roman protectorate. The Romans validated home rule officially under the Lycian League in 168 BC. This native government was an early federation with republican principles; these later came to the attention of the framers of the United States Constitution, particularly James Madison, influencing their thoughts.
Despite home rule, Lycia was not a sovereign state and had not been since its defeat by the Carians. In 43 AD the Roman emperor Claudius dissolved the league, and Lycia was incorporated into the Roman province of Lycia et Pamphylia. In 395 AD, the province was assigned to the Eastern Roman Empire. It lost the region to the Sultanate of Rum in the early 13th century, which itself collapsed in 1308 AD. It was then absorbed by the Beylik of Teke and came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire in 1423 AD. Lycia was inherited by the Turkish Republic after the Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
Geography
The borders of Lycia varied over time, but at its centre was the Teke peninsula of southwestern Turkey, which juts southward into the Mediterranean Sea, bounded on the west by the Gulf of Fethiye, and on the east by the Gulf of Antalya. Lycia comprised what is now the westernmost portion of Antalya Province, the easternmost portion of Muğla Province, and the southernmost portion of Burdur Province. In ancient times the surrounding districts were, from west to east, Caria, Pisidia, and Pamphylia, all equally as ancient, and each speaking its own Anatolian language.The name of the Teke Peninsula comes from the former name of Antalya Province, which was Teke Province, named from the Turkish tribe that settled in the region.
Physical geography
Four ridges extend from northeast to southwest, roughly, forming the western extremity of the Taurus Mountains. Furthest west of the four are Boncuk Dağlari, or 'the Boncuk Mountains', extending from about Altinyayla, Burdur, southwest to about Oren north of Fethiye. This is a fairly low range peaking at about. To the west of it the steep gorges of Dalaman Çayi, the ancient Indus, formed the traditional border between Caria and Lycia. The stream, long, enters the Mediterranean to the west of modern-day Dalaman. Upstream it is dammed in four places, after an origin in the vicinity of Sarikavak in Denizli Province.File:Xanthos inschriftenpfeiler axb01.jpg|thumb|Inscribed Xanthian Obelisk, a funerary pillar for a sarcophagus that probably belonged to Dynast Kheriga.
The next ridge to the east is Akdağlari, 'the White Mountains', about long, with a high point at Uyluktepe, "Uyluk Peak", of. This massif may have been ancient Mount Cragus. Along its western side flows Eşen Çayi, "the Esen River", anciently the Xanthos, Lycian Arñna, originating in the Boncuk Mountains, flowing south, and transecting the several-mile-long beach at Patara. The Xanthos Valley was the country called Tŗmmis in dynastic Lycia, from which the people were the Termilae or Tremilae, or Kragos in the coin inscriptions of Greek Lycia: Kr or Ksan Kr. The name of western Lycia was given by Charles Fellows to it and points of Lycia west of it.
The next ridge to the east, Beydağlari, 'the Bey Mountains', peaks at Kizlarsevrisi,, the highest point of the Teke Peninsula. It is most likely the ancient Masicytus range. Between Beydağlari and Akdağlari is an upland plateau, Elmali, where ancient Milyas was located. The elevation of the town of Elmali, which means 'Apple Town,' from the density of fruit-bearing groves in the region, is, which is the highest part of the valley below it. Fellows considered the valley to be central Lycia.
The Akçay, or 'White River', the ancient Aedesa, brought water from the slopes to the plain, where it pooled in two lakes below the town, Karagöl and Avlangöl. Currently the two lakes are dry, the waters being captured on an ongoing basis by irrigation systems for the trees. The Aedesa once drained the plain through a chasm to the east, but now flows entirely through pipelines covering the same route, but emptying into the water supplies of Arycanda and Arif. An effort has been made to restore some of the cedar forests cleared in antiquity.
The easternmost ridge extends along the east coast of the Teke Peninsula, and is called, generally, Tahtali Dağlari, "The Tahtali Mountains." The high point within them is Tahtali Dağ, elevation, dubbed "Mount Olympus" in antiquity by the Greeks, remembering Mount Olympus in Greece. These mountains create a rugged coastline called by Fellows eastern Lycia. Much of it has been reserved as Olimpos Beydağlari Parki. Within the park on the slopes of Mount Olympus is a U-shaped outcrop, Yanartaş, above Cirali, from which methane gas, naturally perpetually escaping from below through the rocks, feeds eternal flames. This is the location of ancient Mount Chimaera.
Through the cul-de-sac between Baydağlari and Tahtalidağlari, the Alakir Çay, the ancient Limyra, flows to the south trickling from the broad valley under superhighway D400 near downtown Kumluca across a barrier beach into the Mediterranean. This configuration is entirely modern. Upstream the river is impounded behind Alakir Dam to form an urban-size reservoir. Below the reservoir a braided stream alternates with a single, small channel flowing through irrigated land. The wide bed gives an indication of the former size of the river. Upstream from the reservoir the stream lies in an unaltered gorge, flowing from the slopes of Baydağlari. The ancient route to Antalya goes up the valley and over the cul-de-sac, as the coast itself is impassible except by boat. The valley was the seat of ancient Solymus, home of the Solymi.
Demography
There are at least 381 ancient settlements in the broader region of Lycia-Pamphylia, with the vast majority of these in Lycia. These are situated either along the coastal strip in the protecting coves or on the slopes and hills of the mountain ranges. They are often difficult to access, which in ancient times was a defensive feature. The rugged coastline favored well-defended ports from which, in troubled times, Lycian pirate fleets sallied forth.The principal cities of ancient Lycia were Xanthos, Patara, Myra, Pinara, Tlos and Olympos and Phaselis. Cities such as Telmessos and Krya were sometimes listed by Classical authors as Carian and sometimes as Lycian.
Modern Tourism
Although the 2nd-century BC dialogue Erōtes found the cities of Lycia "interesting more for their history than for their monuments, since they have retained none of their former splendor," many relics of the Lycians remain visible today. These relics include the distinctive rock-cut tombs in the sides of cliffs. The British Museum in London contains one of the best collections of Lycian artifacts. Letoon, an important center in Hellenic times of worship for the goddess Leto and her twin children, Apollo and Artemis, and nearby Xanthos, ancient capital of Lycia, constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site.Turkey's first waymarked long-distance footpath, the Lycian Way, follows part of the coast of the region. The establishment of the path was a private initiative by a British/Turkish woman called Kate Clow. It is intended to support sustainable tourism in smaller mountain villages which are in the process of depopulation. Since it is mainly walked in March – June and Sept–Nov, it also has lengthened the tourism season. The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry promotes the Lycian coast as part of the Turkish Riviera or the Turquoise Coast, but the most important part of this is further west near Bodrum. This coast features rocky or sandy beaches at the bases of cliffs and settlements in protected coves that cater to the yachting industry.
Yeşilüzümlü village is a popular touristic attraction among the tourists beyond the Lycian Way due to its historic architecture and narrow cobblestone streets. The village is also located near the Cadyanda ruins, which date back to 3000 BCE, that are also popular among the tourists. The inhabitants are also known for their weavings called "Dastar", which Turkish Patent Institute granted a geographical indication status in 2019.
Ancient language
The eponymous inhabitants of Lycia, the Lycians, spoke Lycian, a member of the Luwian branch of the Anatolian languages, a subfamily of the Indo-European family. Lycian has been attested only between about 500 BC and no later than 300 BC, in a unique alphabet devised for the purpose from the Greek alphabet of Rhodes. However, the Luwian languages originated in Anatolia during the 2nd millennium BC. The country was known by the name of Lukka then, and was sometimes under Hittite rule.At about 535 BC, before the first appearance of attested Lycian, the Achaemenid Empire overran Lycia. Despite its resistance, because of which the population of Xanthos was decimated, Lycia became part of the Persian Empire. The first coins with Lycian letters on them appeared not long before 500 BC. Lycia prospered under a monarchy set up by the Persians. Subsequently, the Lycians were verbose in stone, carving memorial, historical and governmental inscriptions. Not all of these can yet be entirely understood, due to remaining ignorance of the language. The term "dynastic period" is used. If the government was any sort of federal democracy, there is no evidence of it, as the term "dynastic" suggests.
Lycia hosted a small enclave of Dorian Greeks for some centuries and Rhodes was mainly inhabited by Dorians at the time. After the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, Lycia became open to further Greek settlement. During this period, inscriptions in Lycian diminished, while those in Greek multiplied. Complete assimilation to Greek occurred sometime in the 4th century, after Lycia had come under the control of Alexander the Great and his fellow Macedonians. There is no agreement yet on which inscription in the Lycian language is the very last, but nothing dated after the year 300 BC has yet been found.
Subsequently, the Lycians were vassalized by the Roman Republic, which allowed the Lycians home rule under their own language, which at that point was Greek. Lycia continued to exist as a vassal state under the Roman Empire until its final division after the death of Theodosius I at which point it became a part of the Byzantine Empire under Arcadius. After the fall of the Byzantines in the 15th century, Lycia fell under the control of the Ottoman Empire; Turkish colonization of the area soon followed. Turkish and Greek settlements existed side-by-side, each speaking their own language.
All Greek-speaking enclaves in Anatolia were exchanged for Turkish speakers in Greece during the final settlement of the border with Greece at the beginning of the Turkish Republic in 1923. The Turks had won wars against both Greece and Armenia in the preceding few years, settling the issue of whether the coast of Anatolia was going to be Greek or Turkish. The intent of the Treaty of Lausanne was to define borders that would not leave substantial populations of one country in another. Some population transfers were enforced. Former Greek villages still stand as ghost towns in Lycia.