Patara, cradle of civilizations, is declared this year’s tourism site

Following the years of Troy and Göbeklitepe in 2018 and 2019, respectively, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry declared 2020 as the Year of Patara, the ancient city where St. Nicholas was born. Now, the ministry will promote the ancient city in the southern province of Antalya's Kaş District.

The head of the Patara ancient city excavations, Professor Havva İşkan Işık stated that Patara Ancient City is a spiral of history that continues with little interruption until today. "This is one of the most special cities of Anatolia, the cradle of civilizations," she said.

The head of the Department of Archeology at Akdeniz University Faculty of Letters, Işık spoke about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's recent announcement of 2020 as the "Year of Patara," saying that she believed the decision would have an important contribution to tourism.

Stating that 300,000 people visited the ancient city last year, Işık said that they expected this number to reach 1 million in 2020 with this decision.

Işık stated that the Lycian League, which consisted of 23 cities in the middle of the 1st century B.C., was dominant in the region extending from Fethiye to Antalya on the Teke Peninsula, and that then Lycians had a unique culture in Anatolia.

Explaining that St. Nicholas, more popularly known as "Santa Claus," the bishop of the ancient city of Myra, was born in Patara, she said, "He took religion education here. Patara's history continues uninterruptedly. Cem Sultan met with the people of Rhodes at Patara Harbor upon the order of his father Fatih Sultan Mehmet. A wireless telegraph station was built here by the order of Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II. We are in a historical spiral that continues with very few interruptions until today. This is the...