Dalyan King Tombs
Kaunos, which was a commercially important port city in ancient times, lost its port feature as the sea filled with alluvium over time.
According to Herodotus, the father of history, the people of Caunos were among the indigenous people of Caria, but they considered themselves Cretans. The geographer Strabo also writes that Kaunos had a shipyard and a harbor that could be closed. The city was founded by Kaunos, the son of Miletus, who was exiled for having inappropriate relations with his twin sister. The rock tombs, which can also be seen from Dalyan, were built in the 4th century BC and later used in the Roman period. Inside the Lycian type tombs, there are three stone beds on which the dead were laid. There are two Ionian columns on the façade, frieze and pediment on the columns. There are lion reliefs on one of the pediments.
The harbor of the city was the Sülüklü Lake below the acropolis. At that time, the sea came up to the acropolis of Kaunos.
After the Persians conquered Anatolia completely, the city came under the rule of Mausolus. After Alexander defeated the Persians in 334 BC, it came under the rule of Princess Ada, then Antigonos, then Ptolemy. It remained under the rule of the Kingdom of Rhodes, the Kingdom of Pergamon and the Roman Empire. It started to lose its importance as the harbor filled up. Excavations in the north of Sülüklü Göl, the old harbor, revealed a stoa. Many statue pedestals were found around it, but no statues were found. The fountain near the stoa has been restored.
