Sally Mair - Loving life

By Sallymair

Lycian Tombs, Fethiye

Today the weather forecast wasn't very good so we decided to go into the market at Fethiye where we managed not to buy anything. I'm not really very good at valuing 'genuine fakes'. We then walked along to a restaurant used mainly by local people and had a delicious chicken goulash for lunch.
I had read in the guide books about some Lycian tombs in the town, but they were described as at the top of the town, so were up a very steep hill. We decided to have a go at finding them on foot but were ready to resort to a taxi if the hill was too much. We walked up into the old residential part of the town which in itself was full of steep twisty streets and very quickly found the tombs, just beyond the edge of the highest of the houses.
The tombs date from the 4th century BC and are tenants of the Lycian civilisation. There are several groups of these tombs in this part of Turkey and most are inaccessible, these however we could get right up to via steep steps up the side of the hill. They are carved out of the rock, and the largest, the tomb of King Amyntas, is incredibly well carved with Ionic columns outside and some greatly detailed carving including what looks like a studded wooden door carved out of the solid rock. The tombs are all empty now, but you can get into some of them. They are very plain inside with shelves carved out of the rock around the the sides away from the door - presumably to lay the bodies on. When filled the tombs were sealed, but were broken into in antiquity. The carving is remarkable inside and out so with some sharp straight edges and detail.
A little further down the hillside are other tombs which are presumed to be those of less important people.
Very well worth a visit and something very special to have seen.
We had a walk down to Hisaronu after dinner tonight all of which added to a total of 30901 steps, well and truly target met especially as today was one of my two days of walking!

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