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Ancient city in Turkey
Photo: Сергей Секачёв, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Olympos (or Olimpos) is a small village in Lycia on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, next to the ruins of the Lycian / Roman city of Olympos. That in turn was named for the nearby mountain now called Tahtalı - the ancients gave the name Olympos to some two dozen prominent mountains in Turkey alone.
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This was a substantial city from the Lycian era (300 BCE) through Roman times into the 3rd century AD. In the Middle Ages the Genoese and Venetians fortified it, but the problem was always the lack of a hinterland and routes into the interior, and it was abandoned by the 15th century. The ruins are scrappy and spread out, best are the mosaics and the tombs near the former harbour, but mostly you just enjoy the forest and beach setting without any great buildings or monuments.
Opened in 2023, these are modern chalets for short or long lets.
Clean friendly place with 2 / 3-bed tree cabins, larger bungalows and dorm.
Rooms are more like cabins set among the trees. Good reviews for comfort and cuisine.
Clean well-run site.
Simple but comfy cabins, the closest accommodation to the ancient city and beach.
Olympos and Çıralı are 80 km south of Antalya, a 90 min drive. Buses along the main highway D400 run hourly, heading for towns further west such as Finike and Demre. These drop you at the head of the access roads.
Read in the guideOlympos and Çıralı have separate access roads, so it's 20 km to go around by road, but a 2-3 km walk along the beach. This means paying the fee to enter the ruins, unless you slip through out of hours.
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Antalya · International · AYT
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