Myra Antik Kenti

At the foot of the rocky slope on the edge of Demre, left in the middle of centuries of alluvium, Myra offers two of Lycia's most striking sights together. Tombs cut into the rock with house and temple facades stand side by side here with one of the largest theatres in Lycia. The city's roots go back to the fifth century BC, as the rock tombs and inscriptions show. There are two explanations for its name. The ministry's museum page links the name to the river Myros on which the city was founded, today's Demre Çayı. The Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia instead points to the Lycian word muri and to the famous myrrh oil obtained from myrtle. According to Strabo, Myra was one of the six large cities of the Lycian League that held three votes, and the only city in Central Lycia with this privilege. The city grew in the Roman period; according to the museum page it enjoyed its heyday between 408 and 450, when it was the capital of Lycia. It became known throughout the Middle Ages through Saint Nicholas, who was its bishop in the fourth century. From the seventh century onwards earthquakes, floods and Arab raids weakened the city, and after its capture in 809 it lost its importance. The alluvium carried by the Demre Çayı gradually buried the lower city and pushed the shore back; today the city lies about five kilometres inland. The ancient harbour of Andriake lies some five kilometres to the southwest. The theatre is the heart of the visit. According to the Türkiye Tourism Encyclopedia this Roman building held about eleven thousand people and has survived in good condition. The semicircular theatre was destroyed in the earthquake of 141 and rebuilt afterwards. The seating is divided in two by the diazoma, the walkway across its middle. The armrests of the double seats of honour in front of the diazoma are carved with mixed sea creatures. According to a study by the archaeologist Banu Özdilek, these sea scenes are unique to Myra among the theatres of Lycia. The inscriptions "place of Gaius" and "place of Praksion" carved on the diazoma wall show to whom the front seats were reserved. The first vaulted room of the stepped gallery that leads up to the upper rows on the west side tells the theatre's history. The stones here were reused from the seating of the theatre's older, Hellenistic phase and carry inscriptions of the Late Hellenistic and Early Roman periods. The vaulted space in the middle of the seating was added in the Eastern Roman period, and a fragment of an older lion-footed seat of honour was reused in its wall. About half of the stage building is still standing. The building was decorated with masks, a mask frieze, statues and rich reliefs; large marble mask reliefs symbolising tragedy and comedy can be seen around the theatre today. The cliffs on either side of the theatre hold Myra's second great treasure, its rock tombs. The city's cemeteries are grouped in three areas, the Sea, South and River necropoleis, and a total of 104 rock tombs have been counted. In the Sea Necropolis, just northwest of the theatre, the tombs are packed side by side and one above another like a honeycomb. Most are house-type tombs that translate into stone the beams and roof details of Lycian timber houses; among them are also temple-fronted examples and tombs with reliefs or inscriptions. The River Necropolis lies in the valley of the Demre Çayı and holds 41 tombs. Its best-known tomb, the Lion Tomb or Painted Tomb, lies about one and a half kilometres upstream of the theatre and shows eleven life-size figures. When the traveller Charles Fellows saw the tombs in 1840, they still carried traces of red, yellow and blue paint. The city's water came through a system of channels cut into the rocks at the edge of Demre. On the acropolis hill there are Hellenistic and Roman walls, a cistern and defensive towers, and below them remains such as a bath and a fountain building. The first study of the site goes back to Mayer in 1803. Systematic excavations at Myra and Andriake began in 2009 under the direction of Prof. Dr. Nevzat Çevik. In 2009 Myra was entered on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List as part of the "Ancient Cities of Lycian Civilization". The site belongs to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and, according to the official museum page, is open every day of the week. Check the official website for current opening hours and fees; the MüzeKart is valid for citizens of Türkiye, and an audio guide is available. You can reach Demre from Antalya by bus, and from the district centre you need a vehicle to continue to the site. On summer middays the stone steps of the theatre get very hot; come early in the morning and bring a hat and water. Do not try to climb the cliff; looking at the tombs from the path below is both safer and the best way to see the facades as a whole. You can round off the day with Myra's harbour Andriake and the Museum of Lycian Civilisations there.