Tlos Archaeological Site

Tlos lies at the village of Yakaköy in Muğla's Seydikemer district, on a plain hemmed in on three sides by steep cliffs at the south-western foot of the Akdağlar. It is counted among the most important Lycian cities of the Xanthos Valley, with Patara and Xanthos to the east, Pınara to the south, and Kadyanda and Telmessos to the west.

Its story is long. Hittite texts speak of a place called Dalawa, and Lycian inscriptions know it as Tlawa, so the site was already inhabited before the Lycians proper. It passed into Persian hands around 540 BC, then under Alexander and his successors, and in 168 BC it became one of the six largest cities of the Lycian League, with three votes. Under Rome it stayed important, and in Byzantine times it was one of Lycia's bishoprics until the twelfth century. Its last chapter is Ottoman: in the nineteenth century a local strongman, Kanlı Ali Ağa, built a castle on the acropolis summit using stones of the ancient city.

Today the ruins include a theatre, a stadium, a large bath, a Temple of Kronos, a basilica and, cut into the cliff, the rock tombs that make Tlos so photogenic. Excavations are still under way among these monuments. The city was placed on UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List in 2009.