Havva İşkan Işık

The 1,900-year-old statue of a woman unearthed in the ancient city of Patara has created a sense of excitement among archaeologists, who have been continuing their excavations in the ancient city after the declaration of 2020 as the "Year of Patara."

An excavation team in the ancient city of Patara, located in Turkey's Mediterranean coast, unearthed an inscription in an ancient theater.

Located in the Kaş district of southwestern Antalya province, Patara is known as the capital of the ancient Lycian civilization, which consisted of 23 cities in the middle of the first century BC.

When the first excavations in the ancient city of Patara began in 1988, archaeologists and academics were using wheelbarrows to carry their digging items and their findings. Now that they found a trove of ancient relics, they say it's time for conservation.

The excavations have so far trained three professors, two associate professors and three doctors in the Harbor Bath excavations.

The city gate in the ancient city of Patara in the southern province of Antalya, which is believed to date back 2,000 years and said to be unique in the world in terms of its water transfer duty, will get its former glory with a restoration.

A portrait sculpture which has been in the Antalya Museum since 1972 belongs to Sappho, known as the first and most important female poet of the ancient period, according to Havva İşkan Işık, a professor of archaeology at Akdeniz University in the southern province of Antalya.

Following the years of Troy and Göbeklitepe in 2018 and 2019, respectively, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry declared 2020 as the Year of Patara, the ancient city where St. Nicholas was born. Now, the ministry will promote the ancient city in the southern province of Antalya's Kaş District.

Following the year of Troy and Göbeklitepe in 2018 and 2019, respectively, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry declared 2020 as the Year of Patara - the ancient city where St. Nicholas was born. 

Under the light of the pillar of the Monument of the Roads, which is considered one of the world's oldest road maps, showing roads built by the Roman Emperor Claudius in Lycia, 21 out of 63 roads have been so far been uncovered by archeologists.