Ancient City of Kaunos

Kaunos stood on a rocky hill where the Dalyan river reaches the sea and served as a port until the bay turned into a delta of reeds and a sandspit. The city has been known since the fifth century BC and belonged to Caria, but it spoke its own language and minted its own coinage, and its inhabitants, in the words of Herodotus, considered themselves older than their neighbours. Maritime trade fed it for centuries; the silting of the harbour at the end of antiquity deprived the port of its purpose, and the place emptied out. Of the city there remain fortifications on two hills, a round Hellenistic fortress, an agora with a fountain, Roman baths and a church of Byzantine times. The theatre, seating about five thousand, is cut into the slope and has kept its vaulted entrances and part of the retaining walls. Standing apart is a terrace with the foundations of temples, from which the whole delta can be seen. The best-known feature here is the row of rock-cut tombs in the form of temple facades, carved into the sheer cliff above the river; they are clearly visible from the water. Turkish archaeologists have been excavating since the 1960s. A path leads to the site from the Dalyan jetty through the reeds, and the climb up the hill takes about half an hour.

On the map