Phaselis

The first thing you notice is the smell of pine resin in warm air. Needles cover the ground and soften your steps. Cicadas keep up a flat, continuous noise from the branches. Then the trees open and there is water on both sides of you, very still and very clear, with cut stone lying at the edge of it. Somewhere close, small waves are turning over on a pebble shore. The marble underfoot is polished and slightly slippery.

Phaselis was built on a small peninsula with three harbours, and that shape explains everything about the place. One bay faces north, one faces south, and a third is tucked in the middle. Whichever way the wind blew, a ship could find shelter here. The city ran across the neck of the peninsula between them. You can walk from one harbour to another in a couple of minutes, which is exactly why merchants liked it.

Greek settlers from the island of Rhodes founded the city, by tradition in the seventh century before the common era. A local story says they bought the land from a shepherd and paid for it in dried fish. Treat that as folklore rather than history. What is clear is the character it produced. Phaselis lived by trade and shipping rather than farming, and it kept contact with Egypt, Greece and the wider eastern Mediterranean.

Alexander the Great came here during his campaign through Asia Minor. The city sent him a golden crown and welcomed him rather than resisting, and he stayed through the winter before moving on. Plutarch tells a small story from that visit. After a long dinner, Alexander and his companions found a statue in the market of a writer he had known, and they draped it in garlands as a joke. The market where that happened is under your feet.

The spine of the site is the main street. It runs between the south harbour and the central harbour, paved with large stone slabs and wide enough for carts. Steps rise at either end. Walk it slowly. You will see cuttings for doorways, drainage channels along the sides, and the stumps of columns that once carried shade over the shopfronts. In summer the stone gets hot enough to feel through thin soles.

At the southern end of that street stand the remains of a gate built for the emperor Hadrian, who travelled widely through the provinces in the second century. Only the lower courses survive, with fragments of the inscription that named him. Roman cities across this coast built monuments like this to mark an imperial visit or to invite one. Stand in the gap and look north along the street to see how the entrance was staged.

Along the street you will pass bath buildings and the open squares that served as markets. In the baths, look for the brick pillars that once held a raised floor with hot air circulating beneath it. Some rooms keep patches of plaster. There is also a small structure often identified as a shrine or monument near the harbour end. Vegetation grows through much of it, so the outlines are easier to read in early spring.

The theatre sits on the slope above the street, cut partly into the hillside. It is modest in size compared with the great theatres of the region. Climb to the upper rows and turn around. Through a gap in the trees you can see the mountain that dominates this coast, and on the other side the sea. Audiences here watched performances with that behind the stage. The seating is broken in places, so take the steps carefully.

Water was the city's weak point, and the answer was an aqueduct. A long channel carried water from a spring inland to the built-up area near the north harbour. Sections of it still stand at head height and above, running through the trees in a straight line that is unmistakable once you spot it. Follow it for a few minutes if you have time. It is one of the more complete aqueducts surviving on the Lycian coast.

Beyond the main area, the necropolis spreads into the woods. Stone sarcophagi lie among the pines, some cracked open, some with their heavy curved lids still in place. Many carry no decoration at all. Others show simple mouldings and worn inscriptions. Grave robbers and earthquakes account for most of the damage. It is quiet out there, and you will often have the tombs to yourself even when the harbours are busy.

People come here to swim as much as to look at ruins. The beaches at the harbours are shingle and coarse sand, and the water shelves gently. Bring a towel and swim shoes. There is little shade beyond the tree line, and facilities on site are limited, so carry water. Go early in the day if you want the site to yourself, because tour boats from Kemer arrive later in the morning and moor offshore.

Before you leave, walk to the end of the harbour wall and stand where the paving meets the water. The stone under you was laid so cargo could be unloaded. Ships tied up exactly here, in this bay, with the same mountain behind them and the same pines dropping needles into the water. Nothing has been built over it. Listen for a moment to the cicadas and the small waves, then take the path back through the trees.