City History

Before it was ever called Fethiye, this coastal settlement was known to the ancient world as Telmessos.

According to Lycian legend, the city owes its name to the Greek god Apollo.

The story goes that Apollo fell deeply in love with the shy daughter of King Agenor of Phoenicia.

To win her affection, he transformed himself into a small, gentle dog. Once he gained her trust, he revealed his true, divine form, and the two had a son named Telmessos—which translates to "the land of lights."

Historically, the city was established by at least the 5th century BC on the border of Lycia and Caria.

It quickly earned a regional reputation not just for its trade, but for its powerful oracle.

The diviners and prophets of Telmessos were highly sought after by ancient rulers, exerting significant influence over political events across Anatolia.

Telmessos grew to become the most important port city of the Lycian Civilization, a loose federation of fiercely independent democratic city-states.

The Lycians were masters of maritime trade and remarkable stone architecture, leaving behind a unique funerary landscape that defines modern Fethiye.

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Instead of hiding their dead away, the Lycians carved monumental, temple-faced tombs directly into the sheer rock cliffs overlooking the sea, believing that a mythical winged creature would carry the souls of the deceased into the afterlife.

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The 4th-century BC Tomb of Amyntas overlooking Fethiye. Quelle: Wikipedia

The most famous of these is the Tomb of Amyntas, built around 350 BC.

Carved directly into the cliff with massive Ionic columns, it stands as a testament to the extraordinary craftsmanship of the era. Scattered throughout Fethiye's modern residential streets, tourists still stumble upon ancient Lycian freestanding sarcophagi sitting naturally alongside contemporary houses and roads.

In 547 BC, the Persian general Harpagos swept through the region, absorbing Telmessos and the rest of Lycia into the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire.

Despite Persian rule, the city maintained its cultural identity and eventually joined the Greek Delian League in the 5th century BC, asserting its independence as Persian influence waned.

The arrival of Alexander the Great in the winter of 334–333 BC marked the beginning of the Hellenistic era.

Legends surrounding its capture vary:

One account states that the city quietly surrendered out of awe for Alexander.

Another more dramatic account claims Alexander's fleet commander snuck soldiers into the acropolis disguised as musicians and slaves during a night festival.

Following Alexander's death, control of Telmessos shifted repeatedly between rival Hellenistic kingdoms, including the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Kingdom of Pergamon, before the city formally integrated into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BC.

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Under Roman administration, Telmessos flourished as a vital commercial hub.

The infrastructure was heavily updated, featuring grand public baths, temples, and a massive Hellenistic-Roman Theatre right by the main harbor quay, which could hold thousands of spectators.

The restored Roman Theatre in the center of modern Fethiye. Quelle: Selcuk Oner / Getty Images

As the Roman Empire transitioned into the Byzantine Empire, the city remained prosperous during late antiquity but faced severe external pressures. In the 7th and 8th centuries AD, relentless Arab-Byzantine Wars forced locals to abandon the exposed coastal harbor and retreat to the fortified acropolis hill. Around 800 AD, the town was briefly fortified and renamed Anastasioupolis in honor of Emperor Anastasios II.

By the 10th century, its ancient name was completely forgotten.

Locals and sailors began calling the settlement Makri (meaning "the long one"), named after the long island guarding the entrance to the deep bay.

The geopolitical landscape changed permanently in the late 12th and early 13th centuries when Turkmen tribes migrated into southwestern Anatolia. In 1284, the Anatolian Beylik (principality) of Menteşeogullari conquered Makri.

In 1424, the town was absorbed into the growing Ottoman Empire.

Under Ottoman rule, the settlement (known in Turkish as Meğri) settled into a rhythm as a quiet but strategically important fishing and trading port.

The local economy centered on:

Maritime commerce across the Mediterranean

Sponge diving and fishing

Valonia oak and agricultural exports from the fertile valleys

For centuries, Meğri thrived as a multicultural community where Ottoman Turks, Levantine traders, and a substantial Greek Orthodox population lived side by side.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I brought rapid, sweeping changes to the town's demographics and identity.

Following the Greco-Turkish War, the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey required the Greek population of Meğri to relocate to Greece (where they founded the town of Nea Makri near Athens).

In return, Turkish Muslims displaced from Greece were resettled in the homes they left behind. Just outside the city center, the abandoned stone houses of Kayaköy (formerly Karmylassos) still stand today as a "ghost village" preserved as a monument to this bittersweet chapter of history.

In 1934, the Turkish government officially abolished the name Meğri.

The city was renamed Fethiye to honor Captain Fethi Bey, a local hero and one of the first combat pilots of the Ottoman Air Force, who tragically died in an airplane crash in 1914 during a pioneering flight from Istanbul to Cairo.

5th C. BC 334 BC 2nd C. BC 1424 1934

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[Telmessos] ======> [Hellenistic] => [Roman/Byz] => [Ottoman] ===> [Modern Fethiye]

Lycian Port Alexander Theater & Renamed Renamed after

& Oracle Conquest Fortress "Meğri" Capt. Fethi Bey

The physical layout of the city underwent one final major transformation on April 25, 1957, when a catastrophic 7.1 magnitude earthquake leveled a significant portion of the historic town.

Rather than abandoning it, the residents rebuilt Fethiye from the ground up with a modern urban plan, wider avenues, and an upgraded marina, perfectly positioning it for the international tourism boom that arrived in the 1980s.

Today, Fethiye beautifully balances its status as a premier Riviera holiday destination while living right alongside the enduring monuments of its ancient past.