The Land of Lycia

Natural Features, Environment, Climate and Strategic Geography
No territory of Anatolia, no autochthonous region of Asia Minor apart from the Troad, was so closely connected with Greece in mythology as Lycia. Its magnificent scenery, with mountains rising to heights of over 10,000 feet, with its lakes, woods and forests, its rocky coast indented with creeks and sprinkled with islands, its superb ruins of two dozen cities, could hardly reflect more splendidly, even today, the ancient link that held them together. (Brewster 1993:57)

Lycia came to occupy most of the Teke Peninsula at the south-west corner of Anatolia, roughly defined as the area of Turkey lying south of a line drawn from Dalyan to Antalya.

The steep geography of Lycia sharply divides the land into river valleys, coastal plains and upland basins. Three great mountain chains determine access to and within Lycia - in the west two spurs of the western Taurus Mountains, the Boncuk Daglari and the Baba Dagi, and in the east the greatest range of all, the Bey Daglari. These three ranges join in the north of Lycia to form a plateau. Because of these ranges, travel was much restricted in ancient Lycia and access to many parts of the country was practical only by traveling along the coast. For example, the valley of the Xanthos River which formed one of the main land communications routes (then and today) could be reached from central Lycia only via Kalkan (ancient Phoenicus).

The Xanthos River was the longest and largest river in Lycia and the main water supply for many of the Lycian cities. It begins about 25 miles inland and empties into the sea at Patara. In Lycian times, like today, the river provided the people of the Xanthos valley with rich, fertile soil for planting as well as lush wildlife. The Xanthos valley is long and relatively wide for river valleys in Lycia - fifteen to twenty kilometers for most of its length. Communication between cities in the valley was easy and this area was the political center of Lycia for much of antiquity. Four of the most important cities of Lycia were located here: Tlos, Xanthos, Pinara and Patara, most of them located on the slopes of the flanking mountain ranges. Central Lycia is a completely different territory, consisting mainly of a large number of small valleys separated by mountain ridges. This led to the large number of independent cities in antiquity. Many Lycian cities lay along the coast as well, as Lycia had a powerful naval force and traded by sea.

The climate of Lycia is typical of that of the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia - lush and green in the spring, hot and dry in the summer. The mountains provide a much cooler climate in the summer and, like today, it appears that transhumance was practiced by the Lycians, taking their flocks to higher altitudes in the summer. In fact, it appears that the eighty families who escaped the first sack of Xanthos were at their summer pastures at the time above the Xanthos valley. The vegetation of Lycia consisted of bush and crops in the coastal areas and forests and pastures towards the mountains. Indeed, Lycia was once heavily forested and famous in antiquity for its export of cedar.

Lycia was strategically important to many competing imperial powers (Alexander the Great, Romans, the Knights of St. John, the Ottomans, etc.) due to its location on the Mediterranean coast. Its coastline made up a vital stretch of military sea-route from the Aegean to the eastern Mediterranean. Due to limitations of provisions and sea-worthiness, the seafarers of the Classical period were unable to operate far out of sight of land and always had to put into shore for the night. As maximum daily range for that time seems to be about two hundred and thirty to sixty kilometers, it any ship passing Lycia would have to put into shore in the area especially since most of the coastline along Lycia is inhospitable (known from the large number of Bronze Age, Hellenistic, and Byzantine wrecks off the Lycian shore) and by the shortage of fresh water. Therefore, any power with control over the Lycian coast could at least know where the enemy fleet would be going. Power over this coast was additionally attractive for control over merchant routes. It is believed that a large trade route existed along the coast of the Levant and the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia, and there was a direct trade route from Lycia to Egypt, both from the Late Bronze Age until the Roman periods. This trade route was very important for the passage of cultural contacts, especially with the Greek world. Most visitors from Greece to Lycia, even if they did not come to trade, would come as St. Paul did on a merchant ship.