Olympos Ruins, Antalya – A Guide To The Ancient City

For many of our first few years of living in Fethiye, Olympos in the Antalya Province was a bit of a holy grail that we were in search of.

It was that place where the travelling backpackers (many of them Aussies and Kiwis) hopped onto a gület in Fethiye harbour and took off to sail to Olympos over the course of 3 days.

An area of real natural beauty; the next stop on the established backpacker trail.

We wanted to sail to Olympos, too.

Arriving by sea to the ruins of a city that has been there since ancient times.

Olympos Quick Guide

What else did we know about this destination we so much wanted to see?

No big plush hotels, here.

A bohemian vibe where those staying around for at least a night or two sleep in treehouse accommodations and relax in the local bars.

A place where people chill out on Olympos Beach and swim in the calm, crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

Where the eternal flame – Chimaera – entices hikers to clamber up the rocks of nearby Yanartaş to witness the phenomenon.

To piece together a bit of ancient history – and Greek myth – of this area, Chimaera was a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion. The monster was tamed by Bellerophon and his winged horse, Pegasus.

And today, if you want to see the tomb of Bellerophon, just head along the road from Fethiye to another prominent site of ancient Lycia; the ancient site of Tlos.

As for the monster, Chimaera, legend has it that those flames are his breath.

Obviously, the flames are formed by the escaping of natural gases. But a good old Greek myth is much more enchanting.

And, of course, there’s also nearby Mount Olympos – modern day Tahtalı Dağı.

At 3,916 metres, the highest mountain of the Beydağları range.

Today, unless you’re hiking along the Lycian Way or taking part in the gruelling Turkish running event, Tahtalı Run To Sky, a cable car – the Olympos Teleferik – will take you to the top of this famous mountain, should you so wish.

Exoloring Olympos Ancient Ruins

We did eventually have our dream come true – arriving by gület to the magnificent Olympos coastline.

We’d just explored nearby ancient Phaselis. But here, just a few kilometres further along the Turquoise Coast, the scenery was more dramatic, brooding, beautiful.

A perfect place for nature lovers.

From the sea, we could see the long stretch of golden beach backed by rocky cliffs and dense forest.

If, like us, you arrive by gület or via one of the boat tours, you’ll soon realise that the golden sandy beach of Olympos is in fact a fine shingle and pebble beach.

Deep shingle!

You’ll need to negotiate this to get to the river mouth and the entrance to the archaeological site.

It’s only a short walk but progress is quite slow. We got there, eventually.

Olympos is always going to be a memorable one for us. And we’re far from finished with it yet.

We’ve never stayed overnight so there’s so much more to experience of this; one of the country’s most beautiful places.

When we were there, we had two hours for exploration of the Olympos ruins.

But it’s not so much what you see whilst you explore, as what you feel, too.

The ancient city of Olympos has an ethereal feel to it; you feel a little bit like you’re intruding on times that have been left concealed for centuries by earthquakes and the natural landscape.

Even now, in the 21st century, it’s no gentle stroll as you stride across stepping stones, along streams, tramp over rubble, lift overhanging branches before ducking below and under them.

And then, almost from nowhere, a Lycian rock tomb will appear before you.

Maybe because it was the first week in October and we were outside of high season, we had the Olympos ruins almost to ourselves.

We were on our own Lycian exploration and we were mesmerised with Olympos.

Almost a feeling of, “Should we really be here?”

Significant City

Olympos was an important Lycian city within the Lycian League and minted its own coins.

Archaeologists have found Lycian League coins from the 2nd Century BC.

So these Lycian tombs are those of important people within the city.

And here we were, stumbling around in flip flops and sandals viewing what has only relatively recently been uncovered.

We felt like apologising to the fragments, ancient tombs and other ruins for our intrusion.

Detailed findings where archaeologists have evidently felt the need to have them further protected can be viewed as exhibits at Antalya Archaeological Museum.

The tomb of Lyciarch Archepolis above, for example, had a third sarcophagus in the centre and dates from the Roman period; 3rd Century AD.

That’s the sarcophagus of the Lyciarch himself, once head of the Lycian League.

Get yourself off to the museum to try and see this (exhibits are rotated).

And, while we do love Antalya museum, you also can’t beat mooching around the original homes of these ancient ruins.

Natural

And Olympos requires that you mooch!

Unlike a lot of other archaeological sites in Turkey, the ruins of Olympos are not all neatly laid out for its visitors.

As you clamber around, it’s really not clear what the layout of the settlement was.

The Olympos ruins are where they are.

Nature has done that.

It’s crept and concealed and there’s clearly still much to be uncovered around here.

The 3rd Century AD tombs in the above photo were only discovered in the 1990s by Antalya Museum.

Olympos really is a fascinating and mysterious place to wander around.

The Building With Mosaics

Yes, that’s its inventive name on the various signposts which point you in directions here and there.

We’d followed a narrow, shaded path along a stream to get there.

The remnants of a stone hearth and large fragments of what were once clearly impressive mosaics.

Now, they were partly camouflaged by moss and autumn leaves.

Into The Byzantine Era

And in the photo below, we see what was a bishop’s residence of the Middle Ages.

And there is indeed a ruined Byzantine era church close by.

As with the Xanthos ruins, the layers and crossovers of history are there for all to see.

Hellenistic, Roman, Lycian, Byzantine.

More Secrets

But Olympos holds many more secrets, still waiting to be discovered by archaeologists.

As we continued our higgledy-piggledy route around the ruins of Olympos, we came across this entrance to a temple.

We’re back at Roman times now in the 2nd Century AD and this is the only surviving section.

It’s not known to which god the temple was dedicated, but an inscription tells us it was built during the reign of Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius, in his honour.

We spent around an hour exploring this side of the Olympos ruins.

Over on the other side of the river, there is still much more to see.

We’ll save that for another time though.

Olympos Treehouses

We continued to walk towards the far end of the ruins where the car park is to check out the practical facilities for visitors.

Knowing Olympos is famous for its treehouse accommodation, we thought there would be at least a little market.

At the car park entrance and ticket office, there was our market.

A market selling the basic essentials you would expect if you were setting off around the ruins or spending a night or few in the treehouses.

We headed back along the path, past the wonderfully serene river mouth and onto the stretch of long beach to wait for the dinghy back to our gület.

It was hot and sunny…

Well, we just had to christen the calm seas of Olympos – our maiden voyage to this area of the Mediterranean coast of Turkey – and go for a swim.

Fabulous!

Olympos Essentials – Useful Information

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