Kaş
Kaş Panoramic View with the Island
of Meis (Kastellorizo)
Ali the shopkeeper, we met earlier in Demre, was kind
enough to make himself free for one day and to drive us around the Lycian
region. Our first visit was to the famous holiday resort Kaş.
Kaş is beautifully situated in a
curving bay underneath the 500 meters high cliffs of the Yatan Adam
(Sleeping Man) mountain from which there is a startling view on the bay
and the oGreek island of Kastellorizo (Meis in Turkish) opposite. Until 1923
Kaş was also populated by Greek fishermen and was known
as Andifli. It was a sleepy fishing village until the early 1980.
Present-day Kaş is one of the fastest
expanding towns in the field of tourism on the Turquoise Coast and has become a stylish
holiday resort with some of the best shops and restaurants on the
Mediterranean. The small town is a center for arts and crafts, jewellery and textiles. There are plenty of excellent restaurants, bars
and cafes.
On the site of present-day Kaş
there was the town of Antiphellos, the harbor of ancient Phellos.
The original name of the town was Habesos or Habesa in the ancient Lycian
tongue. Antiphellos grew in size and became important in Hellenistic times and by the Roman era, it
was the most important city in the region. Today, only a few scattered remains of Antiphellos are left. The most interesting is
definitely the Lion Tomb amidst the carpet shops on Uzun Çarşı
Caddesi. It is a Lycian sarcophagus with two
burial chambers. Another important remain, just outside of town, is the
almost intact Hellenistic theatre with 26 rows of seats that could hold up
to 4,000 people. The tribunes and outer walls are still visible today,
while no trace of the skene remains.
Click on the thumbnails to get a greater picture
