"Fethiye (obviously)." a Fethiye Travel Page by leics

Only spent a couple of hours in Fethiye.....just enough to have a wander round, looking at what there was to look at. Seems like a fairly busy place, lots of boats of all types in the harbour area, plenty of stalls and little shops in the bazaar. It's not entirely focused on tourism (which is good). An earthquake in 1957 (and a previous one in 1857)reduced much of the town to rubble,
so it's not particularly historically interesting. There's a Crusader fortress on one of the hills overlooking the town, and Lycian rock tombs, but it was far too hot to even consider visiting them.

I liked this statue of Fethi Bey, a pilot hero who is commemorated in the town's name (it was called Makri until the 1930's).

The Roman amphitheatre has been fairly recently excavated and cleaned up. There are some really detailed carvings (one of which almost replicates a carving I saw in the Forum in Rome) but I was saddened to see graffiti sprayed on some of the stones. There seems to be a world-wide desire to make one's mark. Just wish it wasn't played out on archaeology. Hmmmmmmm.

In ancient times, Fethiye was the town of Telmessos (captured by Alexander in 334 BC). The later town was built around the massive stone sarcophagi of these ancient Lycians. Dating from around 450 BC, they can still be seen in streets and gardens. The boat-shaped top represented the boat needed for the journey to the afterlife (so a tour guide told me, anyway.....and it makes archaeological sense).

Fethiye would probably make a good touring base. The dolmus system is cheap, frequent and extensive and there are plenty of boat trips available from the harbour. But there isn't really enough there to hold one's interest for more than a few hours. It is, after all, a small market town.....and there's nothing wrong with that at all.