Türkiye's The Lycian Way, Our Way
Highlights of our Lycian Way cultural excursion
We traveled to Türkiye in October, 2024, with the intention of hiking the Lycian Way, a 335 mile (760 km) trekking trail along the Mediterranean coast. October is supposed to be an ideal month to hike the Lycian Way; however, an unusual heat wave sent daily temperatures soaring into the 90’s F (33+ celsius), which was too hot for us to enjoy a through-hike. After a few lazy beach days in Antalya and a side trip to Cappadocia, the heat was persistent, so we switched up our plan.
Instead of backpacking the trail, we used the local bus system to traverse key points of the Lycian Way, moving eastward between trail towns, from Kınık to Antalya: Letoon and Xanthos, Gelemis and Patara, Kas, Cirali. In each town, we stayed up to a week, day-hiking along the Lycian Way, exploring Roman amphitheaters and ancient Lycian tombs, doing a little scuba diving and sea kayaking, and simply kicking back beachside to enjoy the healing waters of the Mediterranean and lots of seafood and sunsets. It wasn’t the backpacking trek we had imagined; instead, we were rewarded with deep cultural immersion that we may have missed if we were focused on completing a point-to-point hike.
About the Lycian Way
The Lycian Way is Turkey’s first long-distance walking route, designed by Kate Clow, a British/Turkish amateur historian, in 1999. Lycia is the historical name of today’s Tekke Peninsula, which juts into the Mediterranean on Turkey’s southwestern coast. The trail follows ancient roads through small villages and also foot and mule paths through fields and mountain terrain connecting Lycian cities from Fethiye to Antalya. Below are actual trail scenes from day hikes along various marked sections of the trail.
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The Lycians: Historical Context
The Lycian people were an ancient Anatolian civilization who flourished for 2,000 years along the rugged coastline forming modern-day Muğla and Antalya provinces. Mentioned in Homer’s Iliad as allies of Troy, the Lycians were known for their fierce independence, distinctive culture, and advanced urban organization. They had their own unique language and written script, built monumental rock-cut tombs, and organized themselves into one of the world’s earliest known federal democracies—the Lycian League. Despite later domination by Persians, Greeks, and Romans, the Lycians retained a strong regional identity for centuries, leaving behind dramatic ruins in cities like Xanthos and Patara, which still bear witness to their maritime skill, artistry, and political innovation.
15th–6th c. BCE: Independent Lycian civilization (late Iron Age).
546 BCE: Conquered by the Persians (Achaemenid Empire).
334 BCE: Conquered by Alexander the Great; Hellenization begins.
167 BCE: Becomes a client state of Rome.
43 CE: Fully integrated into the Roman Empire as the province of Lycia et Pamphylia.
So where are the Lycians today? The Lycian people gradually lost their unique identity through centuries of assimilation into Persian, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine empires. Over time, their language disappeared, their political structures dissolved, and their cities were abandoned or repurposed. Rather than migrating or vanishing suddenly, the Lycians were slowly absorbed into the broader populations of the empires that ruled them—until their cultural identity faded completely. But their legacy lives on along the Lycian Way, with rock-cut tombs, stelae inscriptions, amphitheaters and temples, ancient ships, and other remnants of their once-flourishing cities a surviving testament to a not-quite-forgotten culture.
Highlights of our Cultural Excursion Along the Lycian Way
