Arykanda, Turkey – The Mystical Mountain City of Lycia

Built across a succession of terraces on a steep mountainside, Arykanda occupies one of the most splendid settings of any ancient city in Lycia.

The ruins rise above a deep valley in the mountains of present-day Antalya Province in southern Turkey, around 25 kilometres inland from the Mediterranean coast. Forested slopes surround the site, while the terraces of the ancient city look across an expansive mountain landscape.

Built on a series of terraces across a steep rocky hillside, Arykanda’s location resonates like mystical Delphi in Greece and is perhaps one of the most beautifully situated ancient cities in all of Lycia. The similarity, however, is one of landscape. Delphi was one of the great religious centres of the Greek world, visited by pilgrims seeking the oracle of Apollo. Arykanda was a much smaller regional city whose importance was primarily local. What they share is an extraordinary relationship between architecture and the mountain setting.

Arykanda belonged to ancient Lycia, a mountainous region of southwestern Anatolia whose people developed a distinctive culture while absorbing influences from neighbouring Anatolia, Greece, and eventually Rome.

Even the city’s name appears to preserve something of its older Anatolian heritage. Its ending, -anda, is characteristic of place names with pre-Greek origins in Anatolia. Although this has sometimes been used to suggest settlement stretching back into the Bronze Age, the archaeological evidence is more cautious. Finds dating from around the sixth or fifth century BCE have been discovered, but Arykanda seems to have developed into a recognisably urban centre principally during the Hellenistic period.

Like the rest of Lycia, the region came under Persian control during the fifth century BCE. Ancient accounts famously describe fierce Lycian resistance to the Persians at Xanthos, but we know far less about what happened at Arykanda itself. It is therefore safer to see the city as part of the wider political history of Lycia rather than assume that it played a particular role in those conflicts.

In 333 BCE, Alexander the Great took control of Lycia during his campaign against the Persian Empire. His conquest brought the region firmly into the rapidly expanding Hellenistic world.

The transformation that followed is still visible at Arykanda.

Greek became the language of public inscriptions, while buildings characteristic of the Greek polis appeared across the terraces. An agora formed a focus for civic life, accompanied by a council house, temples, a theatre, and a stadium. Yet Arykanda did not simply become a conventional Greek city transplanted onto Lycian soil. Its layout remained dictated by the mountain itself, with public buildings distributed across separate levels connected by paths and stairways.

After Alexander’s death in 323 BCE, Lycia became caught between the competing Hellenistic kingdoms that divided his empire. Arykanda passed successively through spheres of Ptolemaic and Seleucid control before Lycia was awarded to Rhodes following the defeat of Antiochus III and the settlement imposed by Rome after the Battle of Magnesia. The Lycian cities resisted Rhodian rule, and in 167 BCE Rome recognised their freedom. Arykanda later became a member of the Lycian League and issued its own coinage.

It was during these centuries that much of the city’s distinctive character took shape.

One surviving ancient tradition gives the inhabitants of Arykanda a rather less dignified reputation.

A fragment attributed to the historian Agatharchides describes the Arykandans as having fallen deeply into debt through extravagance, idleness, and a fondness for pleasure. According to the story, they looked hopefully towards Mithridates VI of Pontus because they believed his intervention might result in their debts being cancelled. The historical context of the fragment is not entirely certain, and ancient writers were fond of attaching moral judgements to cities and peoples, but the story gave Arykanda an enduring reputation for lavish living beyond its means.

Whatever truth lies behind the anecdote, the archaeological remains suggest that at least some inhabitants enjoyed considerable prosperity.

The city eventually contained an unusually impressive collection of public buildings for a settlement of its size. Its wealth may have been connected with trade passing along the mountain route between the Lycian coast and the Anatolian interior. Timber from the surrounding forests may also have been economically important, although the precise foundations of Arykanda’s prosperity remain uncertain.

Of all the monuments, the theatre is perhaps the most captivating.

Constructed during the Hellenistic period, probably in the second or first century BCE, its auditorium was set directly into the mountainside. Around twenty rows of stone seating survive above the circular orchestra, while remains of the stage building stand below. The theatre could accommodate several thousand spectators, a surprisingly large capacity for a relatively modest city, and its elevated position gives it one of the finest settings among the theatres of ancient Lycia.

Above the theatre lies the stadium, fitted ingeniously onto another narrow terrace.

At just over 100 metres long, it was considerably smaller than the great stadiums of cities such as Aphrodisias or Perge. Seating was constructed along only one side because the steep terrain allowed little room for a conventional symmetrical arrangement. The result is an excellent example of how Arykanda’s builders adapted familiar Greek architectural forms to an awkward mountain environment.

The upper terraces contained the older civic centre.

Here stood the Upper Agora, surrounded by shops and public buildings, along with the bouleuterion where the city’s governing council met. Nearby was a sanctuary of Helios, the sun god, while other religious buildings occupied different levels of the settlement. Water from nearby springs was channelled into cisterns, providing an essential supply for a city built high above the valley floor.

Roman power had increasingly shaped Lycian affairs long before the region was formally annexed. In 43 CE, during the reign of Emperor Claudius, Lycia was incorporated directly into the Roman Empire.

Rather than bringing decline, Roman rule ushered in one of Arykanda’s most prosperous periods. New baths, monuments, and houses appeared, and they also altered and embellished existing public areas. An imperial cult sanctuary honoured the emperor Trajan, and an Odeon used for musical performances and civic gatherings was decorated with coloured marble and mosaics. A portrait of Hadrian discovered there provides another reminder of the city’s connection to the wider imperial world.

One of the most impressive surviving Roman structures is the great bath and gymnasium complex on the lower terraces.

Its substantial walls and arches still convey the scale of the building. The complex was developed or substantially rebuilt following the destructive earthquake that struck Lycia in 141 CE. Arykanda received financial assistance from Opramoas of Rhodiapolis, a wealthy Lycian benefactor who donated money to numerous cities damaged by the disaster. An inscription records that Arykanda received 10,000 denarii from him.

Earthquakes were a recurring reality throughout ancient Lycia.

Another destructive event has traditionally been dated to around 240 CE, although the evidence that this particular earthquake directly affected Arykanda is less secure. Archaeological and numismatic evidence suggests renewed reconstruction activity in Lycia during the reign of Gordian III, and Arykanda continued to be occupied afterwards.

Its houses and tombs also reflect the city’s prosperity.

Excavations have revealed substantial residences, some with mosaics and private bathing facilities. Along the roads leading through the settlement and its necropolises stand monumental funerary buildings, including vaulted tombs, sarcophagi, and temple-like tombs decorated with classical architectural details. Their size and ornamentation reveal the wealth and status of some of Arykanda’s families during the Roman period.

Christianity reached Arykanda comparatively early, although its acceptance was not immediate.

One of the most intriguing inscriptions from the city records is an anti-Christian petition sent by the inhabitants to the emperor Maximinus Daia in 312 CE. It provides rare evidence of the tensions that accompanied the growth of Christianity during the final years of official pagan resistance within the Roman Empire.

Within little more than a century, however, the religious landscape had transformed.

By the fifth century, Christian buildings had become established in Arykanda. The former imperial cult sanctuary was reused as a basilica and Episcopal complex, and the city became the seat of a bishop. Mosaics and traces of wall decoration survive from this later phase, showing that Arykanda remained an active community well into Late Antiquity.

The city’s final decline appears to have been gradual rather than the result of a single invasion or catastrophe.

During the sixth century, much of the population seems to have shifted to a lower settlement known today as Arif, south of the main ancient city. The name Arykanda nevertheless survived, and a cleric associated with the city attended the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 CE. This suggests continuity long after the great public buildings on the mountain terraces had begun to lose their original functions.

After centuries of obscurity to European scholarship, the British traveller and explorer Charles Fellows identified the ruins in 1838. Using inscriptions and coins discovered at the site, Fellows was able to connect the extensive remains with ancient Arykanda. His journeys through Lycia helped bring many of the region’s ancient cities to wider scholarly attention during the nineteenth century.

Systematic archaeological excavation at Arykanda began in 1971, revealing far more of the city’s complex history. Work has uncovered buildings ranging from Hellenistic civic monuments to substantial Roman houses and Late Antique structures, gradually revealing how the settlement changed across many centuries.

Today, Arykanda remains far less famous than the great Lycian sites of Xanthos, Myra or Patara.

That relative obscurity is part of its charm.

The theatre, stadium, agoras, baths and monumental tombs survive across the same steep terraces that shaped the ancient city. Unlike many archaeological sites where individual monuments dominate, Arykanda is best understood as a complete mountain settlement whose architecture continually responded to the difficult terrain.

Its importance does not lie in having been a great political capital or a famous religious centre.

Instead, Arykanda offers something quieter but equally revealing: the story of a Lycian community that absorbed Greek culture, prospered under Rome, and adapted repeatedly to political and religious change.

And high above the valley, the arrangement of its ancient terraces still makes clear why this relatively little-known city remains one of Lycia’s most memorable archaeological sites.

View a selection of images of Arykanda.

All images, text, and content © Steven Sklifas.