Going to Letoon

On the agenda today were the historic Lycian cities of Xanthos, Letoon and Patara.

Our first stop was Xanthos (Kinik) which according to my Thomas Cook guidebook was the greatest city of Lycia. The ancient ruins overlook the Xanthos river. We were lucky enough to have a tour guide to show us round and as far as tour guides go we could have done a lot worse…he was quite easy on the eyes.

In total I think we spent about two hours together looking at the ruins of the Byzantine basilica, houses, the agora (also known as a forum) and the amphitheatre as well as walking up the hill (insert angry face) to have a look at the necropolis and tombs. Other items of interest included the mosaic floors, (protected in most areas by a top layer of gravel) underground water pipes and a metal slab that looks like stone on which the parentals had great fun playing different tunes.

The city of Xanthos, the administrative centre of the Lycian Leauge is suggested to have been first been inhabited in the 8th century BC and has since seen the rule of three major kingdoms: Lycian, Byzantian and Roman and in that two major sieges.

The people of Xanthos are said to have fought valiantly in both sieges especially in 545-546 BC when the Persian commander Harpagos attacked. Yet after realising that they were going to be sacked by the enemy there was a mass suicide including many women and children and the city was burnt to the ground.-ha how do you like us now Harpagos.

Xanthos lost its importance both as a city and a port after the Muslim raids of the 7th century and carried on life as a small village. That is until a British archeologist: Charles Fellows comes along in 1838-42 discovers the area and ships a lot of the pretty stuff of to the British Museum meaning that as you go round looking at the ruins you will see that that some of the tops of pillars are missing…because they are in London.

After a spot of tomb shopping we bid our tour guide farewell and carried on towards Letoon which was the sanctuary of Leto.

Here there were more ruins to look at yet the miserly man in charge would not pay for another set of entrance fees so we were forced to look upon the ruins from afar.

Another spot on our route was Patara which they have only recently started to excavate, indeed the last building found was only discovered in 2011. Patara is most well known for its sandy beach that stretches for 22km. However the beach is only open until 7 o'clock in the evenings as it is a protected area for turtle nesting. Alas we did not spot any turtles as I later found out the turtle nesting time is between April and May.

Our menu for this evening included:

Happy hour of Beer, red wine and a caramel milkshake for yours truly

A mixed mezze, Chicken skewers and mackerel between three

And a selection of Turkish delight and baklava for pudding