Hamaxia Antik Kenti

About Hamaxia Antik Kenti

Hamaxia is an ancient city at Elikesik village, twelve kilometres north-west of Alanya, within the bounds of ancient Pamphylia. Locally it is known as Sinekkalesi. The ancient geographer Strabo wrote that timber used in shipbuilding came from the city, that cedar trees were especially plentiful, and that Antony gave the area to Cleopatra as a gift. Inscriptions and remains show the city was inhabited from the Hellenistic period to the end of the Byzantine period. In the second century AD it is known to have been a small, modest community dependent on Coracesium. Most of its inscriptions honour leading families who lived in Hamaxia, and only a few mention its buildings. The surviving remains include a cult area of Hermes and Serapis, a tower thought to be Hellenistic with two exedrae to its west, another exedra to the north, a bath, tomb buildings of various sizes in the necropolis, and the city walls, which are best preserved on the north and west. Many of the ash chests (ostothekai) found across the necropolis outside the walls are displayed at Alanya Museum. The site can be reached by private vehicle from Alanya.