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Lycian antique settlements
of anatolia
Elmas Erdogan
Ankara
University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Landscape
Architecture, Diskapi, Ankara, Turkey. E-mail:
Elmas.Erdogan@agri.ankara.edu.tr.
Accepted 31 August, 2009 |
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The region which was known as Teke Peninsula in ancient
times was called Lycia and encompassed an area from Köyceğiz
in the west to Antalya (Phaselis) in the east. Lycia one of
the unique region of Turkey covers the southwest end of
Anatolian peninsula bordered with the Mediterranean Sea.
Lycia that is rich in natural, cultural and archeological
values is surrounded with natural formations such as Bey
Mountain from the east and Ak Mountain from the west with
altitutes more than 3000 meters and Xanthos Valley, Kragos
and Antikragos Mountains on the west side of Ak Mountain. On
the other hand, Dalaman Stream forms the west border of
Lycia region and a plateau located on the North compleates
the geography of Lycia. As the region has topographic and
geomorphologic variations, the ancient settlements were
scattered in the whole area. In this article, Lycia region
of Anatolia was studied with its antique settlements and
landscape qualities. Lycia region was introduced and a brief
history of the region was given together with the
characteristics of Lycian civilization. Then, the most
important 6 settlements of Lycia League namely Telmessos,
Tlos, Pınara, Xanthos, Patara, Myra and Olympos were
presented with their natural and cultural values. Finally,
the antique Lycian settlements established in the
Mediterranean Region of Turkey were evaluated in the frame
of landform and landscape characteristics and a general
evaluation was made in the frame of site specific qualities
of each settlement.
Key words:
Anatolia, Lycia, archeological settlements, antiquity,
Lycian culture, cultural heritage.
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