Andriake’s Museum has opened

The opening of this museum in Andriake inside the walls of Hadrian’s Granary (131 AD) has been announced a while ago (see: Time to revisit Andriake, the harbor of Myra) and is now a fact.

It has been baptized as The Lycian Civilizations Museum as it not only contains local finds from Myra and Andriake but from the entire region of Lycia, roughly situated at the southern coast of Turkey between Fethiye and Finike. Except for the coastal cities, Lycia has been very little explored but offers a great number of sites that flourished when they joined hands in the Lycian League founded in the early days of the 2nd century BC. The League had a Parliament of its own, the first ever in history, that was located at Patara. This kind of government may well have inspired modern democracy.

More than one thousand artifacts excavated in cities like Myra, Andriake, Patara, Xanthos, Tlos, Arykanda, Pinara, Antiphellos, and Olympos have found a home in one of the seven rooms of this former Granary. Among the exhibits, there are statues, vessels, other kitchenware, glassware, and jewelry.

The site of Andriake itself has been cleared further and has become part of the open-air museum with its harbor, the agora with an underground water cistern, a Roman bath, and a boat, as well as the remains of several churches and even a Jewish temple.

More information about the Lycian League can be found in my earlier blog: A short history of Lycia.

[Click here for more pictures of Andriake]