Kınık
Kınık is a town in Lycia, the Mediterranean region of Turkey. The reason to visit is the ancient Lycian sites of Xanthos and Letoon, both inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Kınık had a population of 6120 in 2022.
Understand
editLeto was yet another woman got pregnant by Zeus; his wife Hera always blamed his philandering on the other women and sent a python to chase her. Hera then caused Leto to be stuck in a painful protracted labour but eventually twins were born, Apollo and Artemis. Job done, Leto thereafter faded away into the pantheon, occasionally helping out her offspring's endeavours or turning pesky people into frogs but mostly just basking in religious devotion as a mother-goddess. Her cult was especially strong on the island of Delos, but began in Lycia before the fourth century BC.
Her shrine here, near the modern town of Kınık, may reflect the area's unusual fertility. This is a coastal plain on an otherwise rugged coastline and may once have been an inlet of the Med. It's nowadays packed with greenhouses growing tomatoes and other fruit and veg: look down from any hilltop upon a glistening sea of plastic greenhouse covers.
Get in
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The village is 1 km west of the coast highway D400, which wends and winds from Marmaris and Fethiye to Kalkan 19 km south, and runs on east to Antalya and far beyond. See Kalkan for bus routes: by long-distance bus (eg from Istanbul) you'll probably have to double back from there, but a local bus or dolmuş might drop you at the highway junction or closer.
Muttaş Bus 5-15 runs every 30 min from Fethiye to Kumlouva and Karadere, stopping in Kınık by the street to Xanthos; get off at Kumluova for Letoon.
Get around
editXanthos is 1 km north of town, and Letoon is 4 km south. The Lycian Way, with its distinctive yellow-black signs, links them all.
See
edit- 1 Xanthos (Ksantos), Asar Cd, Kınık, ☏ +90 242 871 6001. Daily 08:30-20:00. Xanthos was the chief city of the Lycian federation, populated from the 8th century BC into the Byzantine era. Features include Lycian tombs, an amphitheatre, and an obelisk with a funerary text in Ancient Greek, Lycian and Milyan / Lycian B. Several treasures were carried off to the British Museum in London so the Nereid Monument, the tomb of Payava, and the original sculptures of the Harpy Tomb here are replicas. Adult 100 TL.
- 2 Letoon, Kumluova, ☏ +90 252 614 1150. Daily 08:30-17:30. This was a religious site for Xanthos and populated over the same timescale. There's an amphitheatre, a Roman Christian basilica, and ruins of three temples - that of Leto has been partly reconstructed. Adult 70 TL.
Do
editLycian Way is a waymarked hiking trail along the coast of Lycia, from Fethiye to the hills above Antalya. The local section eastbound is from the village of Gavurağılı to the ruins of Pydnai / Pydnee, then to Karadere. From there it traverses Letoon, Kınık and Xanthos, then heads east across D400 to Çavdır.
Buy
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Small stores along Atatürk Blv in Kınık are open daily to 22:00.
Eat
editSeveral cafes along Atatürk Blv, the main street through Kınık.
Drink
editCafes might serve beer, otherwise head to the fleshpots of Patara and Kalkan.
Sleep
edit- 1 Villa Şirin, Karaköy, ☏ +90 254 1605 4848. Clean welcoming small hotel.
- 2 Letoon Antique Hotel, Fethiye Yolu Cd 26, Kumluova, ☏ +90 252 452 0983. Clean spacious hotel, facilities erratic. B&B double 3000 TL.
- Çavdır 15 km east has several self-catering villas.
Connect
editKınık and its approach roads have 4G from all Turkish carriers. As of May 2024, 5G has not rolled out in Turkey.
Go next
edit- Patara 10 km south has a long sandy beach and Lycian and Roman ruins.
- Kalkan is a resort on the coast, with a village atmosphere as package tourists don't come here.
- Fethiye is a big resort to the north, on the package-tour circuit.
| Routes through Kınık |
| Marmaris ← Fethiye ← | W  E |
→ Patara → Antalya |
| Fethiye ← Kabak ← Yediburunlar ← | W  E |
→ Üzümlü → Patara → Antalya |