The Daily Diary of a Wandering Restaurateur
Xanthos

The western coast of Turkey is the home of many ancient civilizations. This particular part of the country was once the Lycian Union, generally accepted as the oldest republic in the world. It consisted of twenty independent cities managed by a council and a president chosen by the cities. The capital of Lycia was Xanthos, about 20km north of Kalkan.

There's not much left of it, but given that the city dates back to the 8th century BC, that places its roots in the Iron Age.Still, you can see from the ruins that the facilities were once quite extensive. The residents were fiercely devoted to their independence. Two times in history, when the city was being overrun by hostile forces, the populace destroyed the city and committed mass suicide rather that submitting to foreign rule.

The city was re-discovered by a British archeologist in the 1800's who shipped all the good stuff out to the British Museum. so much for cultural integrity. Since there is nothing left to pilfer, Xanthos is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site ... a little late, I fear. Maybe we can see the treasures of ancient Turkey the next time we are in London!

I can easily overdose on religious art in France and Italy ... and I am finding the same to be true of ancient ruins. It is humbling to realize how old this area is, though. Perhaps if I was more of a historian ...

After an hour or so in the sun, I was ready for lunch and a cold Efes, so we headed back into Kalkan and took care of business ... which, as usual, turned out to be our lone official meal of the day. The rest of the afternoon was just about relaxing, doing laundry and generally kicking back.

It was difficult to get my head around how the city was laid out. The documentation provided was sketchy at best. But it was obvious that something quite grand had once been here. In the side of the hill above the city were some Lycian tombs. These are quite simple but some of the tombs from this era a little farther north from here look like miniature temples. The Lycians knew how to die in style, it seems.

For lunch we stopped at a restaurant called Hunkar Ocaksasi, a tiny kebab house on the main drag. It is also the #2 rated restaurant in Kalkan on TripAdvisor. We opted for the pide (pee-day), sort of like a Turkish pizza. Excellent food at reasonable prices ... and a very relaxed, family-like atmosphere. This is the sort of place one could easily adopt as your own and it appeared that many of the patrons had done just that.

The night was perfect, the sound track was provided by the call to prayer from the mosque overlaid with Arabic techno-pop from a wedding party up the hill and the lights of the town from our balcony were hypnotic. A very civilized way to end the day.

[Itinerary Page]

© 2013 Restaurant Doctor