Less visited sites of a lesser known ancient civilization, Letoon and Xanthos are more intriguing than they appear at a first glance.  For those visiting the Turquoise Coast of Turkiye, Letoon and Xanthos combine to make a worthwhile day trip.

Letoon

I based myself in Fethiye, which is a small city with good amenities.  From its bus station, I easily found a minibus to Kumluova village and let the driver know that I wished to visit Letoon.  From where he dropped me off, it was an easy 900 metres walk to the ancient sanctuary.  Letoon appeared to me to be well-cared for and had a modern administrative and ticket office on-site.  I was the sole visitor for most of my visit. 

Not much remains of Letoon's three temples, but its Hellenistic theatre (photo) from 2nd century BCE is well-preserved.  The theatre's two vaulted passages are its highlights. 

Although Letoon lacks the 'wow' factor, there are small details that one can discover that will make a visit more interesting.  For example, near the closed-off entrance to the northeast passage of the theatre, there is a Roman tomb with a carved representation of its toga-clad occupant.  

Letoon is a small site and an hour should be sufficient to explore it.

Xanthos

With neither my own vehicle nor intimate knowledge of the minibus routes, I found it easier to simply walk from Letoon to Xanthos.  The route between the two sites are part of the much-heralded Lycian Way hiking trail.  The Letoon to Xanthos segment - which is entirely composed of paved roads - passes farms and village that are more peaceful than picturesque.

Xanthos is a bigger and perhaps more interesting site than Letoon, but it feels less safeguarded than Letoon.  Indeed, the first substantial structure that you will likely encounter, i.e., the Arch of Vespasian, has a modern road laying immediately next to it.  This intrusive road meets the Arch at about halfway to the Arch's height, which results in the 2,000 year old gate to essentially be in a road ditch. 

This road also cuts Xanthos into two areas.  The area to the west of the ticket office and the parking lot is more obvious and contains a Roman theatre, agora, the Harpy Tomb, the Xanthian Obelisk, among other ruins.  Walking around this area, you will stumble upon intact clay pipes and mosaic tiles.  The fact I could brush away gravel to uncover mosaic tiles was very exciting and did make me feel as though I was an (incompetent) archaeologist.  However, it also concerned me that I could actually do so.  I guiltily covered up the mosaics again as though I was an (incompetent) pirate, burying a treasure.

The second area to the east of the ticket office and the parking lot is either missed or ignored by many visitors because I only encountered a couple of people in this area, compared to a maybe two dozen in the west area.  The east area (which also extends to the north of the ticket office) is mostly Xanthos' necropolis and contains many interesting sarcophagus tombs.  I quite enjoyed discovering the tombs with no other visitors on site.

Other nearby attractions

I spent two days in Fethiye.  In one of the days, I visited a nearby atmospheric ghost village of Kayakoyu, whose Greek Orthodox Christian inhabitants were forced to leave their homes in the exchange of populations between Turkiye and Greece in 1923. 

In Fethiye itself, the highlight attractions are the Lycian tombs, specifically the Amyntas Tomb.  The most interesting aspect of this tomb is that it is carved in imitation of a temple facade and thus shows us how a wooden temple door would have looked.  While Amyntas Tomb is located in a protected area, other ancient tombs in Fethiye are not as fortunate.  There are tombs that are located in grounds used as dumps and unmaintained parks, and I saw one tomb unceremoniously left in a smack dab middle of a road.

I visited Letoon and Xanthos in November 2024.