Here we are looking across a bay of the Mediterranean into the ancient province of Lycia in southwest Turkey. It gives you an idea of just how narrow the coastal strip is before it rises into the rugged mountains. These mountains are being formed as Africa drifts northwards and is plowing into the southern margin of the Anatolian microcontinental plate that forms the country of Turkey. Just like when India hit Asia to create the Himalayas some 50 million years ago. But this is much more recent. Lycia has been inhabited with major cities since the Bronze Age and is mentioned by Homer as being an ally of Troy. It is perhaps most famous for a massive suicidal defense of the capital city of Xanthos in 540 B.C. After a vicous defense, and facing certain defeat, rather than surrender to the vastly superior force of Cyrus the Great, the warriors wives and children and all their belongings were put into a citadel and then set fire. Then the warriors went out to battle the Persians and fought until they were all slain. Cyrus was so impressed by the tenacity of the Lycians that he granted the area almost total independence in his empire. It was a hot, humid evening and the evaporative mists off the sea gave a surrealistic, almost impressionistic, feel to the land. Previous Turkey

"Antalya Harbour"