Patara

Patara was the most important port city in Lycia and was also a sanctuary dedicated to the god Apollo. Like Perga, however, where the temple of Artemis has never been found, the temple of Apollo has equally failed to manifest during years of excavations at the large city. It seems utterly baffling that these temples, which must have been relatively huge, still defy the attempts of archaeologists to find them. I suspect LiDar would soon locate them when it is finally employed at these sites. On the other hand most of Patara is still buried under the sand, and excavations only started as recently as 1988.

Patara has a fascinating history, not only for the famous people who were either born there or lived there – including gods and oracles – but its important strategic location and stunning scenery set it apart from many other Lycian cities. Like Olympos, Patara was one of the major cities of the Lycian League and enjoyed its heyday during the time of Alexander the Great when the city was a vital naval port.

Today Patara has one of the best beaches in the world, with thirteen miles of gorgeous golden sands and warm shallow seas, but its history, like most places in Lycia, is very ancient indeed.

Although the origins of Patara are shrouded in mystery, there was a city established here in at least the 6th Century BC. Herodotus writes about the oracle of Patara, herself named Lycia, dating to the 4th Century BC, and the oracle rivalled those at Delphi and Delos, becoming one of a trio of the most important oracles in history.

The most important finds were discovered during excavations in the 2014 season. Two figurines were found dating to 7000 BC and 3000 BC respectively, meaning Patara is one of the most ancient settlements in the world, although prior to these finds it was thought Lycian history was much younger: “The head of the excavations, Professor Havva İşkan Işık at Akdeniz University’s Archaeology Department, said the history of Lycia would be rewritten with these new findings.” *(1)

The god Apollo was supposedly born in Patara or in the nearby Xanthos valley. Either way he apparently spent his winters in Patara city and his summers at Delos, spending six months at each place. Whether he was originally a real person or was always a mythical god we may never know, but the fact Apollo is so directly linked with Patara shows its importance as a central city – in fact Patara could be seen as a capital city. This isn’t too surprising though as Xanthos and Letoon are located nearby, and the cult of Leto – the mother of Apollo – was firmly established in the nearby vicinity, and she herself most likely originated in the local area. I find the connection with Apollo and the archaeological find dating to 7000 BC an interesting one. What connection you might ask? There is none, of course, but what I am inferring is that the gods of ancient history may go back much further into the past than we believe, and it is possible these were real individuals whose stories, through the centuries, were diluted and distorted and eventually became the exaggerated mythical tales we read about today. An example of such dilution could be the tale of Noah and his ark, which clearly echoes the huge sea level rises at the end of the last ice age, and the many floods which have been proven scientifically.

Alexander the Great conquered Patara in 333 BC and turned the city into the most important naval port in the region. Unfortunately there seems to be very little information about Alexander’s conquering of Patara other than that statement…

When Alexander died many places erupted into violence as power struggles were inevitably created with the vacuum left behind, and Patara was no exception. From 322 BC – a year after Alexander’s death – the Diadochi Wars lasted for 47 years until 275 BC. During that time Patara was controlled by Antigonus, one of Alexander’s generals, then Demetrius, and finally the city fell into the hands of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty in 281 BC after the Battle of Corupedium.

King Antiochos III of Syria took control of Patara in 196 BC, and despite the attempts of both the Romans and the Rhodians the city remained in Syrian hands until 188 BC when the Treaty of Apamea was signed. Antiochos was defeated at the Battle of Magnesia in 190 BC and the treaty’s main tenet was that Antiochos did not ever enter the borders of Europe and Asia Minor.

After the horrendous mass suicide at Xanthos in 42 BC, Brutus arrived at Patara and the city gave little resistance. By then Lycia had been given complete autonomy after the Romans accepted their fight for independence and the Lycian League was founded in 167 BC. But that didn’t deter Brutus, who ravaged the Lycian cities in his failed attempt to fight against the Triumvirate that persued him and his fellow conspirators after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC.

From this point on Patara seems to have enjoyed a relatively quiet period, and certainly flourished for many years into what we would perceive as the new millennium. Patara was eventually annexed by Rome in 43 AD under the emperor Claudius, and from this point Patara became the wealthiest and most important city in the region, rivalling and coming second only to that of the huge city of Ephesus.

On March 15, 270 AD, Patara’s most famous son was born, if one excludes Apollo himself. Nikolaos would eventually move to Myra, where he would be known as the Bishop of Myra, but he was also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker for his many miracles. We know him today as St. Nicholas, or better still Santa Claus, and it is he who is responsible for today’s tradition of giving gifts at Christmas – a festival that is a confusing mix of many old traditions and ancient people.

In 542 AD a large pandemic wiped out the majority of the population of Patara, but the city would soon recover. Arab raids, however, in the 7th and 8th centuries would see much of the population flee to the mountainous areas around the city. It seems from this point the city slowly declined, but Patara still remained an important naval base for the Byzantine empire up until the 10th Century.

The Battle of Myriokephalon in 1176 saw the city controlled by the Seljuk Turks as the Eastern Roman Empire slowly collapsed. The Seljuk Turks grew in power and strength, and although the Seljuk empire only lasted around 150 years and ended itself by 1194, the growth of native cultures was increasing rapidly. A hundred years after the collapse of the Seljuk empire, the Ottomans came to power in 1299, and it was they who continually attacked the Eastern Roman empire and caused its ultimate demise.

Although Patara was still in use when the Roman empire was finally ended in 1453 by the Ottomans when they defeated the Romans at Constantinople, a hundred years later during the 16th Century the port area silted up and the city was no longer in use.

Patara today is still mostly covered in sand as excavations were only started in 1988. That seems like an astonishing statement to me as Patara was one of the largest and most important cities in Anatolia for over a thousand years. I am sure there will be amazing artefacts and knowledge uncovered in the coming years, and I  would love to be involved in the digs there! I am certain sooner or later the huge temple of Apollo will be located and I sincerely hope I’m still around to be able to see it, as there are decades of work still to be done at Patara.

My personal visit to Patara started late morning on 20 March 2015 and continued into the afternoon. This was the day of the solar eclipse, although partial in this area, and I took several photographs of the covered sun through my sunglass lens which was rather difficult to achieve. There was a distinct reduction in daylight even though only a crescent of the sun was missing. The weather was very warm and there was absolutely no one else visiting the site so once again we had free range of the whole area. There were a couple of workers there but certainly no visitors, although a couple did turn up when we were about to leave. Patara is an absolute must to visit, especially for those who like the beach as well!

The good thing about Patara is it has a lot of information boards all around the site so I took as many photos of those as I could to enhance the knowledge and reduce the amount of writing needed. Despite this, to date Patara has been the most difficult and time consuming travelogue to write. As usual, sources are inaccurate and contradictory, and a lot of cross referencing has been required for accuracy.

 

References:

Tor, Kemel Hakki. Lycia: Shiny territory in Anatolia. 2012, Ten Books, Antalya, Turkey

https://www.academia.edu/2442224/The_ancient_theatre_of_Patara

https://www.academia.edu/289049/_Lycia_-_Crossroads_of_Hittite_and_Greek_Traditions_

http://lycianturkey.com/lycian_sites/patara.htm

http://www.pataraviewpoint.com/patara-history.html

http://www.historvius.com/patara-1778/

http://www.exploreturkey.com/exptur.phtml?id=201

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/excavations-mythical-city-patara-turkey-00680

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/unique-figurines-found-in-patara.aspx?pageID=238&nID=70641&NewsCatID=375

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/excavations-in-patara-end-with-surprizing-discoveries.aspx?pageID=238&nID=71890

http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/005333.html *(1)

http://www.allaboutturkey.com/patara.htm

http://www.emersonkent.com/historic_documents/treaty_of_apamea_188_bc.htm