Who Discover the Lycian Way?

Who Discover the Lycian Way?

The preliminary discovery of the Lycian Way dates back to 1992 and we owe this discovery to Cate Clow. She was born in England, lived in England until 1989 and came to Istanbul in 1989 for a job in computer systems marketing. And in 1992 she moved to Antalya for good. Since he started to work freelance in Antalya, he started to discover ancient roads and hiking routes from time to time. He also accelerates these discoveries with the idea that Turkey needs a long-distance walking route.

In this process, there is no map or book source for exploration. He continues these discoveries with the help of villagers, elders, shepherds. And of course I should take some notes, he takes detailed notes with the idea that someone will need them in the future.

What is the history of Lycian way ?

In fact, the Lycian region was completely explored by so-called travellers, archaeologists and explorers before the 1840s and maps were drawn to fine detail. However, we were not aware of the existence of ancient roads. Until a sarcophagus translated by Prof. Dr Sencer Şahin was found near Patara Harbour in 1994. At that time, it comes to the agenda for the first time that it may be among the top 10 longest distance routes in the world and that the Lycian cities have connection roads to each other. With such small clues or different information, Cate Clow must have deepened her discoveries.

How Cate Clow Discover the Lycian Way ?

In 1999, Cate Clow saw the following competition in the bank where she went to pay the electricity bill one day; The Ministry of Culture and Tourism organised a competition in cooperation with Garanti Bank. It is stated that "Whoever presents the best project for tourism" will be given an incentive of 400 thousand TL. Cate Clow presents her project to the Ministry and among many projects, Cate Clow's project "Ancient Lycian Walking Paths" is selected as the 1st. The project is realised with 400,000 TL, which was the incentive of Garanti Bank at that time. First of all, the entire Lycian Way is cleared of bushes and 550 km of official route marking is marked in red and white. The first longest distance walking route of our country; By obtaining information from the elderly in the villages, the village elders, shepherds, agencies and guides are brought to the country's tourism.