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Olympos 81 pictures 2.39 minutes HQ video Olympos was a very important city in the Lycian League. The town had a commercial port along the coast of Anatolia. Coins minted in the second century B.C. are among the first finds dating back to the ancient city. Olympos was established in the Hellenistic period, in the third century B.C. In 78 B.C., it became part of the Roman Empire, first under the rule of the Venetians, then the Genoese, and still later then under Knights of Rhodes. The city enjoyed a long period of prosperity, until it lost importance and was finally abandoned after the fifteenth century. The place where ancient Olympos once stood is now a protected area, in the Olympos Beydaglari National Park, recently instituted and extremely interesting from an environmental point of view. A stream runs through the city and on its banks, buried in lush vegetation, are the ruins of a small theater, hot springs, an agora and some tombs dating from the Hellenistic period. Of particular interest is the monumental gate of a Roman temple erected at the time of Marcus Aurelius. On the hillside that overlooks the beach, where the river flows into the sea, stand the ruins of a Byzantine fortress. Along the road that leads to the beach, at the foot of the hillside, are two sarcophagi, one of which displays a Hellenistic frieze depicting a ship. The hillside to the northwest of Olympos was the sanctuary of the Chimera. In the Hellenistic epoque, there would have been a temple erected to the god Hephaestus. According to Greek mythology, Bellerophon on his horse Pegasus was supposed to have slain the Chimera, the monster with the head of a lion, body of a goat and tail of a serpent. The flames that emanated from the ground were supposed to have been spat from the jaws of the monster buried there. Most probably it was the phenomenon of natural gas issuing from the earth and self-igniting which inspired the myth of Chimera. Temple Ionic order. From the inscription of a statue-base lying at the foot of the door, there was a statue of Marcus Aurelius standing in the temple. Bath Ancient Water System Tombs The Coast Streets Back to Turkey Index