On The Lycian Way – Erdal Yazıcı – Uranus

The lands on which the Lycians lived benefited greatly from the lush Mediterranean climate. The Lycian settlements, stretching along the coast from the west of Antalya to Fethiye, and northwards to Elmalı, amidst the Taurus Mountains, are unique in terms of their location. When we hit the road for our documentary on Lycia, we started to follow both the visible and hidden traces of the Lycians, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Taurus Mountains. In addition to ancient sources and the discoveries and researches of travellers of the 18th century and afterwards, we have also tried to reflect what we saw and experienced ourselves. Besides our long trips along the Lycian Way and the coast from Fethiye to Antalya, we also discovered many more Lycian settlements hidden amidst the peaks of the Taurus Mountains. We reached the peaks of these cities after tiring hikes. We experienced great pride in their magnificent monuments. We hummed world melodies in their ancient theatres. We saw the new faces of the cities, re-erected after scientific excavations. We looked for the traces of the Lycians on the ancient streets and roads that were brought to light hundreds of years later. Then, we observed their remnants in various museums in Turkey, such as the Fethiye Museum, the Museum of Lycian Civilizations, the Antalya Museum, the Telmessos Museum, the Elmalı Museum, the Burdur Museum and the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, as well as in international museums such as the British Museumand Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien. In this documentary book, we discuss 10 museums displaying Lycian finds, as well as 96 ancient cities, villages, mounds and tumuli. Besides the ancient settlements that have been identified, known and researched, we also stopped by many small village-like settlements – that are most probably associated with the nearby cities – on the Taurus plateaus. We were hosted in the houses of Yörüks (nomads), who live nested within the ancient settlements in those plateaus.We c...