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Myra ( ()) is an ancient Greek town in Lycia where the small town of Kale (''Demre'') is situated today in present day Antalya Province of Turkey. It was located on the river Myros (''Demre Çay''), in the fertile alluvial plain between Alaca Dağ, the Massikytos range and the Aegean Sea. == Historical evidence == Although some scholars equate Myra with the town Mira in Arzawa, there is no proof for the connection. There is no substantiated written reference for Myra before it was listed as a member of the Lycian alliance (168 BC – AD 43); according to Strabo (14:665) it was one of the largest towns of the alliance. The Greek citizens worshipped Artemis Eleutheria, who was the protective goddess of the town. Zeus, Athena and Tyche were venerated as well. The ruins of the Lycian and Roman town are mostly covered by alluvial silts. The Acropolis on the Demre-plateau, the Roman theatre and the Roman baths (''eski hamam'') have been partly excavated. The semi-circular theater was destroyed in an earthquake in 141, but rebuilt afterwards. There are two necropoleis of Lycian rock-cut tombs in the form of temple fronts carved into the vertical faces of cliffs at Myra: the river necropolis and the ocean necropolis. The ocean necropolis is just northwest of the theater. The best known tomb in the river necropolis (located 1.5 km up the Demre Cayi from the theater) is the "Lion's tomb,"also called the "Painted Tomb." When the traveller Charles Fellows saw the tombs in 1840 he found them still colorfully painted red, yellow and blue. Andriake was the harbour of Myra in classical times, but silted up later on. The main structure there surviving to the present day is a granary (horrea) built during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian (117–138 CE). Beside this granary is a large heap of ''Murex'' shells, evidence that Andriake had an ongoing operation for the production of purple dye.〔Gerhard Forstenpointer, et al., "Purple-Dye Production in Lycia – Results of an Archaeozoological Field Survey in Andriake (South-west Turkey)." ''Oxford Journal of Archaeology'' 26, 2 (2007):201–214.〕 Excavations have been carried out at Andriake since 2009. The granary was turned into the Museum of Lycian Civilizations. The granary has seven rooms and measures 56 meters long and 32 meters wide. Artifacts found during the excavations in the Lycian League were placed in the museum. The structures in the Harbor Bazaar as well as the agora, synagogue and a six-meter deep, 24-meter long and 12-meter wide cistern were restored. A 16-meter long Roman-era boat, a crane and a cargo car were placed in front of the museum.〔(opens partially to visits'' )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Myra」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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