Olympos Antalya

Olympos is the Greek word/name ” ???µ??? “. Olympos is in a valley at the south coast of Turkey, 90 km southwest of Antalya city near the Town of Kemer.

The city was founded in the Hellenistic period, presumably taking its name from nearby Mount Olympos (Turkish: Tahtali DaGi), or Tahtali Dag (Timber Mountains), one of over twenty mountains with the name Olympos in the Classical world.

From these mountains of the Solymi, according to Homer, the god Poseidon looked out to sea and saw Odysseus sailing away from Calypso’s island, and called up a great storm that wrecked him on the shores of the island of Nausicaa (Homer, Odyssey Book V). “The summit however, the beautiful pyramid of Solyma 7,800 feet high, where in the snow, the legends say, the roses blossom, and groans are heard to summon the Muslims to Paradise, is not visible from the Chelidonian cape” (Freya Starke, The Lycian Shore, 1956, ch 15, quoting F. Beaufort, Karamania, London 1815, 2nd ed., p.57).

The coins of the city of Olympos date back to the 2nd century BC. It was described by Cicero as an ancient city full of riches and works of art (Cicero, Against Verres II, 1, 4). The city became one of the six leading cities of the Lycian federation. In the 1st century BC, Olympos was invaded and settled by Cilician pirates. This ended in 78 BC, when the Roman commander Publius Servilius Isaurieus, accompanied by the young Julius Caesar, took the city after a victory at sea, and added Olympos to the Roman Empire. The pirate Zenicetes set fire to his own house and perished (Strabo, XIV, p5, Loeb ed.) The emperor Hadrian visited the city after which it took the name of Hadrianopolis for a period, in his honour.

The chief deity of Olympos was Hephaistos, god of fire and blacksmiths. Near Olympos, located in the neighbouring village of Çirali and about 200 meters above sea level, the eternal flames called the Chimaera may be seen issuing from the ground. The fuel source for the flames is natural gas, largely methane, seeping through cracks in the earth. The mythical Chimaera - or Chimera - was a monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent, who roamed these woods and sprouted fire from her mouth.

In the Middle Ages, Venetians, Genoese and Rhodians built two fortresses along the coast, but by the 15th century Olympos had been abandoned. Today the site attracts tourists, not only for the artifacts that can still be found (though fragmentary and widely scattered), but also for its scenic landscapes supporting wild grapevines, flowering oleander, bay trees, figs and pines.

Ancient musician
As mentioned in Plato’s Symposium, Olympos is a musician from Phrygia who played the pipes.

Activities
The Olympos village is located in the heart of the Olympos coastal national park. The surrounding area offers best conditions for Trekking, Mountain biking, Canyoning, Rock climbing, Sea kayaking. It is possible to rent equipment in the village or to join organized tours.

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