Antalya Xanthos Archaeological Site

The archaeological site of Xanthos, one of the ruins affiliated to the Demre Museum Directorate, has been included in the World Cultural Heritage List by UNESCO due to the originality of the Lycian Civilization and the importance of the finds obtained during the excavations. Located in Kınık Town of Kaş District, the ruins were established on two hills overlooking the plain. The name of the city of Xanthos, which is described as the administrative center of the Lycian Union, is first referred to as ARNNA in the inscriptions written in the Lycian language. The finds obtained during the excavations revealed that the earliest traces of the ruins belong to the 8th century BC settlement. The city was besieged by the Persian Commander Harpagos in 546-545 B.C. Xanthosians, famous for their heroism, was forced to leave the city to the Persians despite their great resistance. After Alexander the Great, who ended the Persian domination, the city came under the rule of the Egyptian Dynasty, Ptolemy, and then the III. Antiochus, starting from 309 B.C. The city, which was destroyed by Brutus in BC 432, witnessed intense reconstruction activities during the reign of Roman Emperor Mark Antony and especially Vespasian.

Xanthos, which was the episcopacy center during the Eastern Roman period, lost its importance in the Early Byzantine period due to Arab raids. The world-famous Harpy Monument in the area to the west of the theater, where the most important ruins of Xanthos can be seen, where many buildings built between the 8th century BC and the Late Byzantine period can be seen, and one of the chiefs of Xanthos and the Lycian Sarcophagus from the 4th century BC and the mausoleum with Lycian and Greek inscriptions on two faces, erected in the name of a ruler named Kheri, are remarkable in all their majesty as important tomb structures belonging to the Classical period. The Colonnaded Street of the Roman period, the Cathedral (Eastern Basilica), the Basilica of the Cross, and the 2 km long walls from the Byzantine period are other main ruins.