Theimiussa Antik Kenti

About Theimiussa Antik Kenti

Theimiussa is an ancient Lycian settlement at present-day Üçağız village, reached by a road heading south from about the twentieth kilometre of the Kaş to Demre road. The remains lie on the eastern side of the village, where the houses begin to thin out. An inscription found there shows that administratively Theimiussa was a village rather than a city. Tomb inscriptions stating that fines for violent crimes were to be paid to Myra or Kyaneai suggest it was a naval unit attached to those cities. The first remain, right on the shore, is a miniature fort with rusticated rectangular walls, which in the Byzantine period was enlarged with a wall to enclose the settlement. Where Theimiussa bordered Tyberissos, an acropolis with walls in the same technique was probably intended, together with Tyberissos, as the last place of defence. Heading east from the jetty, a pair of house-type rock tombs stands a little inland from the shore, their entrances damaged. Beside the eastern tomb is a figure of a standing young man or child, and above the door a Lycian inscription names the tomb owner as Kluwanimi. East of these tombs, many Late Hellenistic and Roman sarcophagi line a channel walled with cut stone, which ends at its northern end in an Early Byzantine building of uncertain use. Theimiussa is among the Ancient Cities of Lycian Civilisation proposed for the World Heritage List in 2009.