Limyra

36.34283055555630.170519444444Koordinaten: 36 ° 21 ' N, 30 ° 10' O

Limyra (Greek Λίμυρα, Lycian Zemuri ) was an ancient city in the south of Lycia in Asia Minor. The ruins of the city are about 6 km north- east of the present Turkish city of Finike.

History

For the history of the city, very little is handed down.

The oldest finds ( late geometric ceramic material ) go back to the advanced 8th century BC, however, they may not be indicative structure and extent of the thus displayed to branch. Even beyond the archaic and early classical Limyra only limited information is available. Zemuri was, however, have taken in the 5th century BC, Mint of Xanthian dynasts kuprlli and is likely an important position within the regional settlement hierarchy.

The heyday of the city in high classical period, as it was developed into a thriving residential town ostlykischen dynasty. Its protagonist, the perikle dynast, changed the political landscape of the region. The active commander is expected in the first half of the 4th century, the dynasty of Xanthos defeated and briefly have dominated all Lycia and related areas in the north and east. This shift in power was probably against the will of the Persian overlords, so perikle in research with the participation of the Lycians is connected to the so-called Satrapenaufstand.

In advanced Dynastenzeit a comprehensive building program was carried out in Limyra, in the course of a 25 ha comprehensive city wall and a top mounting were built. Two towering, bergfried -like tower buildings towered over this citadel. You should probably tell of the power and importance of their builders. At that time was also the monumental Heroon the ostlykischen dynasty. At this amphiprostyle podium building, whose upstream halls were supported by caryatids and whose side walls were decorated with friezes of military themes, the mixing of local building traditions with Greek influence is evident. More monumental tombs probably served as burial places an aristocratic upper class. These here is the two-storey tomb of xntabura whose relief decoration include not only a sacrificial scene and a Apobaten and a banquet scene, so central themes of classical Lycian iconography. Extensive cemeteries, in which numerous reliefs and inscriptions have received in the Lycian language and script, lined the branch and formed the largest ensemble of Lycian rock tombs. Particularly impressive is the crafted into a towering rock wall at the entrance of Arykandostales necropolis I. A simple rock grave in the grave Foundation of xuwata in Necropolis II is decorated with a relief representing a duel after the submission of the famous shield of Athena Parthenos by Phidias. At another grave to tebursseli can be mapped as a conquering hero as he perikle with his king the generals arttumpara defeated in the Xanthos valley. At the double grave of Artimas in Necropolis V demonstrates one of the few Aramaic inscriptions of Asia Minor from the compounds of Lycia to the core areas of the Achaemenid Empire. From the mid-classical monument inventory of Limyra a pronounced philhellenism the political leadership of the Dynastenzeit can be read, the semantics of the Lycian culture of this period, however, was determined to a high degree of membership of an oriental life world. The independent Dynastenherrschaften found following the suppression of the Satrapenaufstandes by the Persians to an abrupt end, and Lycia was added to the dominion of the Carian Hekatomniden.

Magnificent buildings in the lower town, such as the Hellenistic Ptolemaion and the Cenotaph for Gaius Caesar, the n in the year 4 BC in Limyra deceased adopted son of Augustus, testify to the importance of the branch in later periods. The theater, a spa resort and a gateway and colonnaded streets illustrate the urban bloom Limyra during the imperial period. The position Limyra as a bishop's seat is illustrated by the Episcopal Church and other Christian places of worship. In the Diocese of the titular Limyra the Roman Catholic Church is declining.

From troubled times testify to the enormous post-ancient city wall rings of eastern and western city., Which was founded in the 16th century Tekke of Kafi Baba, the oldest Bektashi Monastery of the southern Turkish coast, Limyra also has an important monument of Islamic history.

Approx. 3.2 km east of the ruins of Limyra is the little-noticed Roman bridge Limyra. The neglected building is one of the oldest segmental arch bridges in the world. It is 360 m long and rests on a total of 26 segmental arches.

The Austrian Archaeological Institute has conducted since 2002 in Limyra excavations. Already in 1969 the first excavations began under Jürgen Borchhardt on behalf of the German Archaeological Institute ( Istanbul branch ) and subsequently these were continued from 1984 to 2001 as an Austrian project by the Institute of Classical Archaeology at the University of Vienna ( IKA). In these excavations in 2012, a late antique synagogue was discovered.