Limyra

Limyra was a small city of ancient Lycia on the southern coast of Asia Minor, on the Limyrus River. It was already flourishing in the second millennium BCE and became one of the oldest and most prosperous towns of Lycia, and one of the most flourishing trade centres of the Greek world. In the fourth century BCE Pericles, Dynast of Lycia, backed a rebellion of satraps against the Persians and made Limyra the capital of the Lycian League, until Persian rule was restored through Mausolus of Caria. Under Ptolemy II Philadelphos the inhabitants dedicated the Ptolemaion monument in thanks for his support, and in 4 CE Gaius Caesar, grandson and heir of Augustus, died there on his way back to Rome. The remains include five necropolises, the mausoleum of Pericles with its reliefs of Perseus slaying Medusa, a Roman theatre cut into the hill for about 8000 spectators, a bathhouse with a complex heating system, colonnaded streets and a Roman bridge that is among the oldest segmental arch bridges in the world. Limyra later became a bishopric and is now a titular see.