Lycia
Lycia is a peninsula on the south coast of Turkey, which marks the extreme western end of the Taurus mountain range; the range forms a semi-circle around an inland plain and juts into the Mediterranean. Except for the western coast, which faces the dominant winds, this mountainous, partly sunken coast with inlets and bays is very suitable for shipping and less so for road communication. The Lycians formed a democratic polity of cities which flourished for 200 years. So, at the time when the province was annexed by the Roman Imperial administration, (43AD) a thousand years of civilization had left its mark in the form of cities, harbours and roads.
The presence in Lycia of pine woodland plus cedar forests at higher altitudes (over 1200m) favours shipbuilding, and the rivers were used to transport timber from the mountains to shipyards on the coast. The major ports were at the mouths of these rivers; the cities they supported (Rhodiapolis, Limyra, Myra, Xanthos) are the largest and finest of the area.
Lycian Road Construction
Because of the rapid changes of altitude and the deeply-incised valleys and canyons, land transport was far more problematical. However, the mountains provided an immediate supply of limestone of reasonable quality, so roads could be built without transporting materials over any distance. In general the lowland roads have been lost under new settlements or agriculture, so not much is known about their construction standards; they may have been wider and less steep than the surviving mountain roads. The following remarks apply to surviving roads only and are derived from direct observation.
In general, roads were built on ramps constructed diagonally across hillsides. On the lower side, a dry-stone wall of almost unshaped stones was constructed on bare rock. Above the wall, the road-bed was then backfilled where necessary with rubble/gravel, and prominent rocks cut to match the level of the wall. So the main road surface was gravel with some bare rock or cobbled surfaces where dictated by circumstances; cut-stone paving is not observed. Provision was made for water to run off via diagonal steps; these also assisted mules to keep their footing.
Features along roads included wells (positioned every 1-2 hours of travel) and square defensive towers with walkways along the walls. The latter are more common close to the coasts, so may have been used as lookouts and signal points as well as to guard the roads. Since surface water is very rare in Lycia, there are few surviving bridges; these are of Roman construction.
Roads maintain a consistent width, varying between about 2 – 2.5 metres for wide roads to 80 cm for narrow roads. A consistent gradient was maintained by building the roads in zigzags across slopes where required; in the area studied, gradients varied from 8% on wider roads to 14% on narrow roads; the gradient is consistent across many zigzags.
The question remains as to whether the surviving roads have been improved since Lycian times. The network was extended but the style of road building did not evolve in any major way. It seems that in the province of Lycia, since the local road-building methods were so nicely adapted to the environment, the Romans and later civilisations were content to adopt them.
Water was delivered to Roman/Lycian cities by means of aqueducts, up to 20km long. Built in the 1st C AD, these monumental constructions followed contours around hillsides, crossing deep valleys or lowland areas by means of bridges or siphonic systems of pipes made of interlocking stone blocks with a hole bored through for the water. For maintenance access, aqueducts had roads alongside; sometimes inscriptions date the repairs. The Patara, Xanthos and Phaselis aqueducts can be seen on this route.
The Road Network of Lycia
The road network of Lycia at the point when it became a Roman province in 43AD was recorded on a monument erected near the harbour of Patara. It included dedicatory inscriptions naming the Emperor Claudius, and on three side, lists 69 of the roads of the province in the format: From XX to YY – zz Stadion, and names 53 cities. This monument is not the only one in Lycia; another, also dating from the reign of Claudius, was found on the road between Myra and Limyra, in a dramatic position overlooking the sea. The names of the cities were also compared to those on the Opramoas monument found at Rhodiapolis, dating from a century later. The roads listed were also compared with the Tabula Peutingariana, a medieval set of maps representing Roman roads over a long period and wide area. The work on the Stadiasmus was continued by means of fieldwork expeditions, which verified the existence and course of many of the roads. The fieldwork also attempted to solve two riddles – a gap of several lines on side B; an unknown name on the 3-5 lines of side C and a lack of listed roads in certain areas (especially the Kasaba plain and roads to the harbours).
The Lycian Way was intended as a coastal route, so a comparison between the roads of the Stadiasmus and the course of the Lycian Way, shows that the latter includes some of the harbour/coastal roads not listed on the Stadiasmus (eg. Antiphellos – Phellos; Faralya – Oludeniz; , Sidyma – Pydnai; Aperlae – Teimiussa – Andriake).