BC 400 – AD 1300
Simena
Kaleköy
A harbour village crowned by a medieval castle; inside the walls the smallest theatre in Lycia is cut from the rock. The sarcophagus standing in the water is the emblem of the town.
- Lycian League votes
- Not a member / unknown
- Location
- 36.1906° N, 29.8616° E
- Today
- Kaleköy · Demre, Antalya
This city in history
Danger out of the sea
AD ~395–1300 · AD 655–809
For centuries Arab fleets probe the coast; the Battle of the Masts is fought in these waters in 655, and Myra is sacked in 809. The coastal cities shrink and the people withdraw to the castles above. As the harbours go dark, the walls on the hilltops rise.
The coast that went under
AD ~395–1300 · AD 2nd–6th c.
Earthquakes draw the coastline down step by step. At Kekova the stairways, doorsills and quays of Dolichiste pass beneath the water. The harbour of Andriake silts up, the walls of Aperlae walk into the sea. The map changes without a sound.
On the Lycian Way
Four cities, one vote
Antiphellos – Aperlai – Simena
In the bay of Kekova the fine machinery of the Lycian League shows itself: Aperlai, Simena, Apollonia and Isinda voted as a single unit — four cities, one vote. An order that neither ignored the small nor inflated it. On the shore lies the sunken city: the earthquake of the second century AD dropped the ground, and the steps of the houses run down into the water.
The whole Lycian Way — 12 stages, 540 km
In mythology
A country that lives with the sea
The Nereids
The Lycian coast is full of islands, coves and sunken cities; here the sea is not a border but a road. So the Nereids appear not only on one monument but on the coins and votive offerings of the coastal cities. A people who put out to sea every day take the nymphs of the sea along with them.
Nearby cities
Teimiussa · Dolichiste · Istlada · Kyaneai · Aperlai