| | | Limyra
Limyra (Turkey)
| | | | Limyra was a small city in Lycia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, on the Limyrus River, and twenty stadia from the mouth of that river. | | Limyra : Virtual tour |  | 5 sections and 2 items |
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Limyra : Building(s) (4)
|  | Heroon Tomb of King Pericles of Lycia
The Heroon resembles to the Nereids' Tomb in Xanthos constructed in 370 B.C. after the death of King Pericles of Limyra, who worked tirelessly to establish the Lycian League.
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|  | Necropolis on the hillside
In the eastern and western necropoli, the majority of tombs are inscribed in Lyican and are made in the form of houses or lonic temple facades that show traces of Greek architecture.
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|  | Ptolemaion
The Hellenistic Ptolemaion, monumental building in the lower city, provides evidence for the importance of Limyra, also in later periods.
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|  | Theatre of Limyra
IInd century
The Limyra theatre, dated to the 2nd century A.D, with 28 caveas, a seating capacity of 8 thousand people and upper part being in ruins today.
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|  | Guide, map and satellite view of Limyra (2)
The ruins of Limyra are to be seen three or four miles east of the Turkish village of Finike formerly Fineka (in Antiquity the port Phoenicus, a Phoenician foundation), in the Ottoman sanjak (district) of Adalia, in the Vilayet of Konia.
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| | Limyra : Description | |
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Believed to have been in existence since the 5th century, Limyra is still in existence despite a massive earthquake in the mid 19th century although was emptied in the 7th and 9th centuries after the Arab invasions. The city, which is 11km south, composes of three section; the acropolis, areas of settlement, and necropolis.
Limyra was a small city in Lycia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, on the Limyrus River, and twenty stadia from the mouth of that river.
It is mentioned by Strabo (XIV, 666), Ptolemy (V, 3, 6) and several Latin authors. Nothing, however, is known of its history except that Caius Cæsar, adopted son of Augustus, died there (Veilleius Paterculus, II, 102).
The ruins of Limyra are to be seen three or four miles east of the Turkish village of Finike formerly Fineka (in Antiquity the port Phoenicus, a Phoenician foundation), in the Ottoman sanjak (district) of Adalia, in the Vilayet of Konia. They consist of a theatre, tombs, sarcophagi, bas-reliefs, Greek and Lycian inscriptions etc.
Limyra is another area of ruins some 9 kilometers from Finike. The ancient city, which is located in Torunlar between Turunçova and Kumluca, was set up on the lower parts of a 1,216-meter high hill. | | Limyra : History | |
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Limyra was one of the oldest cities in Lycia and its old name was Zemuri. The city existed in the fifth century B.C. and it had rich lands which grew even richer over time. Pericles of Lycia used Limyra as a capital to establish the Lycian Union against the Persians, and he lighted the eternal flame of freedom of Lycia in this city. In the fourth and fifth century B.C., Lycia and Anatolia were under Persian rule. Anatolia was ruled by general governors who were called satraps. Alexander the Great put an end to this Persian sovereignty in 333 B.C. After he took control of this region, Limyra was ruled by Governor Nearkhos.
After Alexander's death, this region of the empire went under shared control. First Antigonaos and later in 301 B.C Lysimakhos took control of the city. Later, the Egyptian Ptolemies ruled the city. This way, the city was ruled for short periods by various of Alexander's generals. The city was ruled by the Ptolemies until 197 B.C. In that year, Limyra was taken by the Syrian king Antiochus III and became part of the Syrian Kingdom.
When Antiochus was defeated in the Magnesia War, Limyra was given to the Kingdom of Rhodes Kingdom under the Apemaia Agreement. However, the Lycian people were not very happy with rule from Rhodes. They staged many uprisings and so managed to draw Rome's attention to this city. Finally, the Romans captured the region from the Kingdom of Rhodes in 167 B.C.
Limyra, which was in the Lycian Union in the second century B.C., had enough status to print their own money. The period between the first and second century B.C. was the second brightest period for Limyra after Pericles' time. These good days came to an end in 141 A.D with a disastrous earthquake which greatly damaged the city. Opramoas, one of the rich people living in the area, helped to rebuild the city after this calamity. He also had theater rebuilt.
Limyra enjoyed prosperity also in the Byzantine era when it became center of the episcopacy. However, starting in the ninth century, the city fell into oblivion due to Arab raids.
On the side of the road, there is theater of Limyra. The building was destroyed by a powerful earthquake in 141 A.D. and it was rebuilt by Opramoas. Today the skene of theater with a double diazoma and vaults has been demolished. Across from theater, there are city walls built in Roman and Byzantine times.
The walls curve up to the north and there is the palace of Pericles here. You can reach here more easily if you walk among the walls. The main avenue of the city was flooded by a creek, and this made the road look quite dramatic.
A tomb that rests above theater is believed, judging from the inscription on it, to belong to Katabura. The body of the tomb is decorated with reliefs and it bears the date 350 B.C. Katabura is either the brother or one of the relatives of King Pericles of Limyra.
There is another tomb built in the ninth century B.C. on the eastern necropolis. The tomb, which has Ionic columns, is carved into rocks. Near Limyra, in Çavdir there is another interesting-looking sarcophagus dated back to the fourth century B.C.. On one side of this tomb, there is a figure of a father, and on the other side, there are figures of a mother and child.
On the way from Finike to Elmali, there is a hill on the northeastern side of the road. There is a group of rock tombs adorning this hill.
Ecclesiastical history
Limyra is mentioned in the Notitiæ Episcopatuum down to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as a suffragan of the metropolitan of Myra.
Six bishops are known: Diotimus, mentioned by St. Basil (ep. ccxviii); Lupicinus, present at the First Council of Constantinople, 381; Stephen, at the Council of Chalcedon (451); Theodore, at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553; Leo, at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787; Nicephorus, at the so-called Photian Council of Constantinople (879).
It remains a Roman Catholic titular see of the former ecclesiastical province of Lycia. | | Limyra : More pictures | |
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