Five Feet, Nine Inches Above Ground

Thursday February 05, 2026

Türkiye is a country overflowing in archeological sites. The area where we have been staying is home to the former Lycean capital city Patara and a modern day beach of the same name. It’s a popular destination in the hot months and not so much in the winter. It was a cool, cloudy, windy day with intermittent showers of rain and I remembered someone in my past saying “we won’t melt” so, with raincoats and an umbrella, off we went. It was well worth the effort although we were almost blown off the beach once we arrived there.

Patara was a major port city and a centre for the worship of Apollo second only to Delphi. No-one knows who or where the original Lycians came from. They were one of the original Anatolian peoples and were eventually absorbed by other civilizations such as the Romans and later the Ottomans. There were Hellenistic influences on the culture evident in the architecture. Most importantly, the League was a democratic federation in which each city had a predetermined number of votes based upon its size. It was established at the beginning of the second century BCE. Periodic assemblies would be held on a rotating basis in each of the cities where delegates discussed policy and voted. Women were included. The remains of the Patara assembly hall are impressively restored.

Despite the heavy grey clouds and the spurts of rain, there were some signs of spring amongst the ruins.

We ended with a quick trip to the beach situated further down the road from the ruins. A beautiful broad expanse of sand that is host to sea turtles that arrive there to lay their eggs. We didn’t see any – wrong time of year.

And that was our adventures for the day, dear readers. We had worked up an appetite so headed off to Kalkan in search of food.

Thank you for reading! Until next time.