Doliche or Dolichiste ( grc, Δολίχη or ; '' Eth.'' or ) was an island noted by ancient geographers in the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

off the

Lycia Lycia ( Lycian: 𐊗𐊕𐊐𐊎𐊆𐊖 ''Trm̃mis''; el, Λυκία, ; tr, Likya) was a state or nationality that flourished in Anatolia from 15–14th centuries BC (as Lukka) to 546 BC. It bordered the Mediterranean Sea in what is ...

n coast, in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, now called

Kekova Kekova, also named ''Caravola''Bertarelli (1929), p.134 (Greek: '' Dolichiste''), is a small Turkish island near Demre (Demre is the Lycian town of Myra) district of Antalya province which faces the villages of Kaleköy (ancient Simena) ...

(or Kakava in Modern Greek), which is located in present-day

Antalya Province Antalya Province ( tr, ) is located on the Mediterranean coast of south-west Turkey, between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. Antalya Province is the centre of Turkey's tourism industry, attracting 30% of foreign tourists visi ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

. Stephanus of Byzantium (''s. v.'') describes Doliche as an island close to the Lycian coast, on the authority of

Callimachus Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide varie ...

; and he adds that Alexander, in his Periplus of Lycia, calls it ''Dolichiste''. It is mentioned by

Pliny Pliny may refer to: People * Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'') * Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...

(v. 31) and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

(v. 3). Pliny places it opposite to

Chimaera (geography) Mount Chimaera was the name of a place in ancient Lycia, notable for constantly burning fires. It is thought to be the area called Yanartaş in Turkey, where methane and other gases emerge from the rock and burn. Some ancient sources considered i ...

; and both Pliny and Ptolemy name it ''Dolichiste''. Doliche or Dolichiste, is a long island, as the name implies. It lies near the southern coast of Lycia, west of the ruins of Myra, and in front of the spacious bay now named Kekova. The island is a narrow ridge of rock, incapable of yielding a constant supply of water; each house had therefore a tank hollowed in the rock, and lined with stucco.

William Martin Leake William Martin Leake (14 January 17776 January 1860) was an English military man, topographer, diplomat, antiquarian, writer, and Fellow of the Royal Society. He served in the British military, spending much of his career in the Mediterrane ...

''Asia Minor'', p. 127. speaks of the ruins of a large city, with a noble theatre, in a fine harbour formed by a range of rocky islands. But this theatre appears, from what Leake says, to be on the coast of the mainland; and Beaufort observes that the whole of these islands and bays may be included under the general Greek name ''Kakava''. By the 1850s, the island was uninhabited.

References

Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Turkey Islands of Turkey Geography of ancient Lycia {{Antalya-geo-stub

See also

References