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Photo: Seckinevcim, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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.
Olympus or Olympos is an ancient city in Lycia. Although Olympus comprised an extensive territorium as identified by tomb inscriptions, it had a medium-sized city center. Buildings that constituted the urban texture spread out along both sides of the creek which extended through a deep valley that flows into the Mediterranean in the east. This structure in the urban texture of Olympus also reflects the means of transportation to the city, its connection with the Mediterranean and its relationship with trade, which is an important element for subsistence. In this respect, it takes its place among the well-known port cities such as Patara, Myra/Andriake and Phaselis in the Lycian Region. Olympus was also one of the six cities of the Lycian League that held three votes. Although the city lost its importance in the late Roman period, it flourished again in the 5th century as a bishopric. However, its redevelopment and prosperity as an early Byzantine city were short-lived, and like most Lycian port cities, it was abandoned during and/or after the Arab raids.
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