Limyra Excavation

Hakkında

Limyra Excavation in Lycia, Turkey, is a project of the Austrian Archaeological Institute.
http://oeai.at/index.php/limyra.html

Hikayemiz

Limyra (in Lycian language: Zẽmuri) is an ancient city in Eastern Lycia/Turkey. It was was first mentioned as “Zumarri” in Hittite texts, although the oldest archaeological finds belong to the 7th century BC. Limyra had her first heyday in the early 4th century BC, when king Perikle made it the residential city of Lycia. In this time impressive buildings such as the monumental city walls, the citadel at the acropolis, the Heroon of Perkle as well as numerous rock-cut tombs and sarcophagi in various necropoleis were erected. After the death of Alexander the Great Lycia became part of the Ptolemaic Empire for approx. 100 years. The impressive remains of a building from that period belong to a temple for the ruler's cult of this dynasty (Ptolemaion). In the year of 4 AD, the adopted son of the Roman emperor Augustus, Gaius Caesar, incidently died in Limyra. While he himself was buried in the Mausoleum Augusti in Rome, in Limyra a huge cenotaph was erected for him. Various buildings from the Roman imperial era such as the theatre, several baths, or wide colonnaded streets prove that Limyra was a wealthy city in this period as well. In Byzantine times Limyra was a Bishop's seat, which had at least three churches and a Bishop’s palace. The city began to decline in the tenth century when Phoinix (Finike) gained the rank of a metropolis instead of Limyra. Recent finds, however, prove that the site was inhabited at least until the 16th century. From the 15th or 16th century the remains of a monastery (tekke) of the Bektashi order have survived.