Arykanda

Arycanda or Arykanda is an Ancient Lycian city [1]. Arykanda was a rich but remote city built upon five large terraces high on a mountain slope, today located near the small modern village of Aykiriçay on the Elmalı-Finike road [1]. The site has been partly excavated and restored by an Ankara University team [1]. The oldest remains and finds from the city date from the 6th or 5th century BC [1]. Archaeological evidence suggests it became a town in the third century BC, when it gained typically Greek monuments including an agora, bouleuterion, a small stadium, temples and eventually a beautiful theatre [1]. The city was at its most prosperous in the Roman period [1]. Early Christian basilicas were built through to Byzantine times of the 6th century when the settlement moved to a new site south of the modern road called Arif (or Aruf) in archaeological literature (to distinguish it from the older site) [1]. The Acropolis houses Hellenistic and older remains of the site which include the temple of Helios, bouleuterion, prytaneion, upper agora with its shops, and several excavated houses [1].