Welcome to Street Gems!
This channel is all about history, world heritage, architecture, archaeology, and fascinating historical places around the world.
One of these fascinating places is Lycia, a region in modern Turkey.
In ancient times, the people who inhabited this region were the Lycians.
They were a distinct culture, but they were heavily influenced by the ancient Greeks, who were their neighbors and the more dominant culture in the area.
The Lycians do have their own unique cultural heritage however. They are most famous for the rock cut tombs that they carved out of the cliffs of their rugged landscape.
They were also well known in the ancient world for their coins, and they had their own alphabet, which they adopted from the Greeks and modified it for themselves.
If you haven’t been to Turkey, you probably haven’t heard of them before, but they have surprising connections to the present. Their political system under the Lycian League partly inspired the founding fathers of the United States when they were drafting their constitution and deciding how Congress would work.
One of their largest cities, Myra, was the home of the original Santa Claus, called Saint Nicholas, who was the bishop of that city in the early 4th century AD.
This video provides a big picture look at this long lost culture that didn’t quite make it into the history books. It covers their tombs, architecture, language, writing, and their place in the larger mediterranean context, such as the Greek world, the Persian Empire, the conquests of Alexander the Great, Roman expansion, and the spread of Christianity.
Written, Edited and Narrated by Jordan Amit
jordanamit.com
Credits:
Research Assistant: Anisa Mara
Ancient reconstruction drawings by Balage Balogh. Archaeologyillustrated.com archaeologyillustrated.com
Footage by: BlackBoxGuild, VideoKot, Pro-Stock, Yucelozel, Oleg Reulets
Image of scaffolding on cliff tomb by Ilyada Karabulut
Santa Claus the Lycian, by “Mim”
Public Domain Images:
docs.google.com/document/d/1C...
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