Rhodiapolis

Rhodiapolis was an ancient town in Lycia (now Turkey) that have been shown by the fourth pre-Christian existence to the seventh century AD. Rhodiapolis located on a small hill 3 km northwest of the city center of Kumluca (Province Antalya), which offers a beautiful view of the bay of Kumluca and Finike.

History

With the exception of a stone tomb with Lycian inscription has little traces of settlement on the city before the fourth century BC. Presumably it was founded as the cities Gagai, Olympos, Phaselis and Korydalla of settlers from Rhodes. From the 4th century two rock tombs date with Lycian inscriptions. The army of Alexander the Great made ​​a stopover before she reached the winter camp in Phaselis 333 BC. In the Hellenistic period Rhodiapolis belonged to the Lycian Federation and minted its own coins, as once more during the Roman period under Gordian III. In late antiquity, the city was the seat of a bishop who was under the Metropolitan of Myra.

Plant

The excavations in the area of the city continue to this day. On the top of the hill are the remains of a watchtower, which was probably built in the Ptolemaic period. Directly below is the well-preserved theater, v. between the first century BC and the beginning of the first century AD is built. It was at the severe earthquake damaged and repaired 141 AD. The grave monument of Opramoas of Rhodiapolis front of the theater leads to the euergetische boons in numerous cities of Lycia in a long inscription. In particular, he had it repaired with high amounts of money, the damage of the earthquake of 141.

Below the theater there is a boulevard, next to a Roman bath. The city was supplied with water from the north-west by an aqueduct. The necropolis with many Roman tombs located north, northeast and east of the city. In the early Byzantine period some buildings and underground cisterns were built. From the seventh century all traces of settlement, why the city was abandoned missing, is not known.

The theater of Rhodiapolis.

The theater of Rhodiapolis.

Inscription of Opramoas of Rhodiapolis.

Lycian Hemidrachme from Rhodiapolis (ca. 167-81 BC).