Abstract:

In the field survey of the Stadiasmus Patarensis (SP) in 2010, the route Phellos, Kyaneai and Myra was investigated. The Tabula Peutingeriana shows a route from Patara to Antiphellos then to Korydalla and Phaselis, while the SP doesn't mention Anthiphellos, but Kyaneai and Myra. These routes (RT 56 and 57) lead from Phellos to Myra, via Çukurbağ – Başlıca – Bağlıca – Yavu (Kyaneai) – Davazlar – Mıhlıpınar Pass – Çakalbayat – Eğridere – Sura. In the first part between Çukurbağ and Bağlıca there are also several roads leading from the main road to the harbour settlements. The remains of the road from Phellos to Kyaneai survived only near Köletepesi and in Bağlıca. This is because the modern road follows this same route. But several rock cut tombs, sarcophagi, other building remains, such as a tower near Kyaneai along the modern road, indicate the ancient road passed nearby. The oracle seat of Apollon Thyrkseus on the Yavu plain can be considered a marker for a road passing in ancient time through the plain. But travellers coming from East to Kyaneai would have used another road, that between the north of Kyaneai and the main road near Nadarlar. The road from Kyaneai to Myra should have begun from the road running from the eastern necropolis of Kyaneai eastwards, while there is also another road leading from northeast of Kyaneai on the south-eastern slope of Ümmü Dağı providing another option. From the Yavu plain to Davazlar no remains survive. East of Davazlar there are the remains of road pavement and the cisterns in the village indicate the passage of an ancient road. In the graveyard of the village a Christian inscription of a church donation of a certain Ioannes was discovered (No.1). The ancient road can be followed briefly to the east of Davazlar, then again around Çakalbayat, where a new Severan milestone was found (Nr.2). From Çakalbayat the road sinuates down to Eğridere, from where, turning east, it passes through Sura. In the old graveyard in Sura two inscriptions, a stele and a fragment, were discovered, the grave stone of Andronikos and Moninda (N.3), the other is for Hyrtakina by Abaskantos. Then the route continues winding down to Myra, passing the Heroon to the east of Myra, where the last remains of the road survived.

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