Epic Hikes of the World ( PDFDrive )

© Mark Read | Lonely Planet
surveying the coastline en route
Across the bay was the island of Kekova, fringed by the underwater ruins of the
Lycian city of Simena, which was submerged by earthquakes around two millennia
ago. After enjoying a meze lunch on a pensione terrace, a local fisherman ferried
me across to take a closer look at the Batık Sehir (Sunken City). The smashed
amphorae, building foundations and staircases disappearing into the blue depths
exemplified the Lycian Way’s appeal of discovering spellbinding ancient history in
a wild Mediterranean setting.
The footpath was researched, designed and waymarked by British amateur
historian Kate Clow in the late 1990s. Aiming to identify and protect Turkey’s
ancient byways, and to offer a journey back through the millennia to the
Mediterranean in the time of Lycia, Clow entered a competition run by a Turkish
bank. Winning the competition and a grant, she spent years exploring this
sublimely beautiful part of Turkey and bringing local hill farmers round to her
envisioned trail and the benefits of tourism. The path is now one of a dozen
walking, cycling and horse-riding routes marked and maintained by the Culture
Routes Society, and it remains Turkey’s original and most popular long-distance
trail.
True to the Lycian Way’s spirit of discovering this region rather than rigidly
following a set route, the trail offers many possible detours, extensions and
variations as it crosses the ancient territory of the mysterious Lycians. First
mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, the Lycians inhabited this part of Anatolia from at least
three millennia ago, and were likely descended from the Lukka mentioned in
ancient Hittite texts. Their high point was the Lycian League, a loose confederation
of some 25 city states, often credited with being history’s first proto-democratic
union. The trail wends its way past the key remnants of the League, which was
formed around 165 BC and absorbed by the Roman Empire two centuries later. The
moss-covered ancient ruins on the route include Letoön, a religious sanctuary
dedicated to Zeus’ lover Leto, the national deity of Lycia; the Roman theatre and
pillar tombs at Xanthos, the grand Lycian capital until Brutus attacked in 42 BC
and the inhabitants committed mass suicide; and Patara, where a meadow strewn
with Lycian ruins, including a 5000-seat theatre and a colonnaded street, leads to
Turkey’s longest interrupted beach. The League debated public issues in Patara’s
bouleuterion, or council chamber, which is often cited as the world’s first
parliament.
As much as history, the trail’s appeal lies in its mix of romantic ruins and