Lycia Day 5: Antiphellus, Dereaza, Sura, Demre, and Andriaca

Passing swiftly over my presentation, on the Doric Tomb at Antiphellus (map), we hustled on to Dereağzı (map), where there is a fortress high on a triangular cliff overlooking the confluence of two rivers, and a Byzantine church nestling in the valley beneath.

Dereağzı church

There was also an inviting looking tell some distance away, so while the others explored the church, I hiked over and conducted an impromptu surface survey. Nothing to report, alas, but the local goats found me highly entertaining.

What is that fool doing?

Sura (map), our next site, introduced a slight variant into our standard 'get-off-the-bus-and-walk-straight-up-the-nearest-hill-through-delightfully-thorny-bushes'' routine: 'walk-downhill-through-delightfully etc'. To lull us into a false sense of security, though, we first listened toa presentation on an unusual tomb, consisting of a rock-cut tomb with a pillared sarcophagus tomb on top.

Sura necropolis

Then, though, the fun began. As if that were not enough, the church and temple we were to find were idyllically set on the valley floor, requiring some delicate footwork to hop from stone to stone, and to shimmy round their foundations. Not everyone made it unscathed.

Sura church, and hill behind

Lunch we ate in Demre (map), the modern town atop Myra (map), the home of St Nicholas, - or Santa Claus, if you prefer, - where he was bishop in the fourth century. As such, it was only right to pay our respects at the basilica where he was buried, - until his remains were removed to Bari.

St Nick

There was also a particularly finely carved tomb in the necropolis which we wanted to visit. As usual, this was one of the less accessible tombs (top left).

Myra Necropolis

Procession to the tomb

Once we were all down unscathed, and had persuaded one of the local boys he really did not want to join us for the rest of the day, we were off to our final site: Andriaca (map). Like Patara, this is a harbour site, and, like Patara, it has a fine preserved granary, in this case Hadrianic, and a mere sixty-five by thirty two metres in plan.

The granary

Why did they need to store so much grain? For import? or, surely more likely, for export, - in which case it says much about the productivity of this area in antiquity. Still more impressive to me, though, was the vaulted basement under the marketplace.

The perfect place for hide and seek