Xanthos was the greatest city of ancient Lycia and suffered the gruesome fate of being destroyed several times by its inhabitants to save it from falling to attacking forces. It was less well defended against the historic looting during the 1800s, when numerous articles were shipped to the British Museum - their ownership is still under dispute. Nevertheless, the impressive ruins are still well worth a look.

The bilingual inscription known as the "Xanthos Obelisk" and the "Letoon Trilingual", were instrumental in beginning to decipher the unsolved puzzle of the Lycian language.

The "Xanthos Obelisk" is not actually an obelisk at all but a pillar tomb that has suffered a lot of damage. An inscription coveres all four side of the stone and is the longerst Lycian inscription known. Linguistically it falls into three parts: beginning on the south side it continues onto the east side and part of the north side in the normal Lycian language. It then follows with a twelve-lined poem in Greek, but the rest of the north side and the whole of the west side is filled with a strange form of Lycian, perhaps ceremonial, which appears elsewhere only on a tomb in Antiphellos. This inscription is believed to be a narrative account of the dead hero's exploits.

Xanthos was the greatest city of ancient Lycia and suffered the gruesome fate of being destroyed several times by its inhabitants to save it from falling to attacking forces. It was less well defended against the historic looting during the 1800s, when numerous articles were shipped to the British Museum - their ownership is still under dispute. Nevertheless, the impressive ruins are still well worth a look.