» Day 3 - Antalya / Kas (Lycia) (B,L,D)

We enter Lycia, land of light. The massive Taurus mountains, which form the border of Ancient Lycia, favoured the birth of an independent state that for many centuries repulsed foreign attacks, but the Greeks managed to found only the colony of Phaselis on this territory. Only the Persians were able to dominate this valiant and proud people and it was only under Alexander the Great that Hellenistic culture spread throughout Lycia and got the upper hand especially with the arrival of the Ptolemies. The Romans too, tired of the continuous resistance offered by the locals, guaranteed Lycians a status of semi-independence that enabled the region to prosper. Destroyed by two earthquakes in 141 and 240 AD, Lycia began to decline, but revived for a short period with the spread of Christianity. Then we go to Phaselis, at a distance of 65 km from Antalya, a refuge for the pirates that used to terrorise the rich trade routes of the region. Its three harbours and its civic monuments are spread among the Mediterranean vegetation, in a practically untouched marine environment. We continue towards Myra, now known as Demre, on whose cliff sides are preserved suggestive rock tombs of the Byzantine period, a famous Roman theatre with its back to the mountain and the Byzantine Church of Saint Nicholas, patron of traders and seamen and the origin of the legend of Santa Claus. We take a caique tour in the bay of Kekova, between the transparent sea and the looming mountains and we admire the submerged ruins of the city that sank into the sea as a result of earthquakes. We arrive in Kaş where we will dine and spend the night.