Pınara Ancient City

Ancient City

The face of a vast rock riddled with hundreds of tomb niches like a honeycomb — one of Lycia’s largest and quietest cities.

Hidden in the pine forests at the foot of the Akdağ mountains southeast of Fethiye, Pınara was one of the largest cities of the Lycian League, holding its maximum number of votes. Its name means “round” in Lycian, pointing to the vast, rounded rock mass rising behind the city. That is exactly the first sight to greet the visitor: the sheer face of this rock, hundreds of metres high, is riddled with hundreds of small tomb niches opened side by side like a honeycomb. How these niches were reached is still not fully known — rope and scaffolding systems are thought to have been used.

On the slope below, scattered through the forest, lie the city’s theatre (one of the best-preserved in Lycia), agora, odeon and temple remains. Among the most striking structures is the “Royal Tomb,” its façade carved with reliefs depicting a city and its walls. Pınara’s greatest privilege is its silence: an ancient city entirely away from the crowds, shared with herds of goats amid the scent of pine and birdsong. In the same region as Tlos and Saklıkent, it fits into the Xanthos valley route.