Yavu hill country

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Everywhere in the middle of the maquis of the Yavu mountains you come across the remains of ancient sites: Here the ruins of the ancient settlement Apollonia, in Lycian times a mansion that was represented with one voice in the Lycian League together with Aperlai, Isinda and Simena.

The Yavu Mountains in Turkey, as part of the southwestern mountain block of the Bey Dağları ( West Taurus ), form a barely 200 km² topographically isolated, easily delimited and sparsely populated karst landscape of the "central Lycian mountains" on the Turkish southwest coast, Antalya province . Because of its remoteness, the region entered the public eye only a few years ago, despite its numerous, but so far little to unknown historical sites - including the ancient city of Kyaneai . Despite its recent socio-economic influence through tourism and the cultivation of special crops in a few, mostly coastal areas and despite its relative proximity to Europe, it embodies a cultural landscape that can be counted among the typical traditionally pronounced rural peripheral areas of Turkey. Exceptions are only three local centers located on the edge of the mountainous region on the steep coast, which is very indented: the lively tourist town of Kaş in the north-west, the agricultural center Demre (Kale / Myra ) on the edge of an intensively used coastal plain in the southeastern corner and between these the touristic strongly influenced Doppelort Üçağızköy / Kaleüçağız / Kaleköy ( Kekova ).

Natural space

The view from the ruins of the ancient settlement Trysa reveals the agriculturally problematic natural landscape character of the Yavu mountainous region

Today, as in the recent past, the Yavu mountain range is the center of the sparsely populated cultural landscape of southern Lycia and is part of the peripheral southwest of Turkey. Correspondingly, C. Ritter remarks on "this triangular area so rich in content", "the Gau Cyaneae" (Kyaneia), that in contrast to other regions of Anatolia it remained almost unvisited until the middle of the 19th century. Only the travelers Schönborn, Spratt and Forbes as well as Fellows briefly touched the area. "All other observations are missing about him."

The gravel bed of the deeply cut valley of the Demre Çayı marks the striking northern border of the Yavu mountain range between Kasaba and Demre

In the northwest, the large fault of the Kasaba Basin delimits the Yavu Mountains. In the northeast the narrow and deep breakthrough of the Demre Çayı (ancient: Myros) forms the border and in the south the bay-rich cliffs of Kekova . Thus, this piece of cultural landscape is modeled as an almost isosceles triangle topographically isolated from the southwestern mountain block of the Bey Dağları .

The picture shows part of the karst landscape interspersed with sharp-edged limestone cliffs with low macchia in the Yavu mountainous region near Nadarlar. In the background the bare Akdağ massif

In the literature, this well-defined karst landscape of the "central Lycian mountainous region" appears under the term "highland plain", as the "Dembre plateau or Kyaneai plateau" or as the "Demre plateau". Early travelers have already made it clear that this part of the Lycian landscape is not a real plateau landscape. Petersen and Luschan already explain: »The unequal (sic!) Levels belonging to these localities are mostly connected to one another by means of terrain furrows. So you can circulate between the levels ... without noteworthy ascending and descending. The mountains rise up to 300 m (l) above the average level of the intramontane basins (460-490 m). This mountainous region is divided from NW to SE into several roughly equally wide parts of different geological ages, all of which are mainly composed of Cretan and Tertiary carbonate rocks . Eocene (tertiary) limestones of the Lutet , which are sometimes strongly distorted and subject to fracture tectonic stress, alternate with reef limestone of the Upper Cretaceous . Distinctive natural boundaries often clearly trace such lines of facies change or tectonic lines and give the landscape the typical large structure in clumps, depressions and steps. Overall, the result is a stepped mountainous country with small chambers, the inner structure of which is on the one hand the delineation of the main mountain direction of the Bey Dağları (SW-NE), on the other hand from individual consistent, but also transverse tectonic faults and not least from geological-mineralogical Substrate (limestone) and thus is determined by a large karst treasure trove.

The triangle of the Yavu Mountains is extremely disadvantaged in terms of water balance due to its small size, its hydrological isolation and its water-permeable geological substrate. There are no permanent waters. Karst springs are rare in middle and higher altitudes, even in the lower parts. A secure water supply for the villages has been guaranteed since 2000 from the Elmalı plateau through a central drinking water supply line from the Çayboğazı reservoir, which is more than 50 km away . Previously, this supply came almost exclusively from countless cisterns (process water, drinking water, cattle troughs).

Climate and vegetation

Typical, almost impenetrable maquis stands dominate large parts of the “forests” of the Yavu mountainous region

The main direction of the Bey Dağları mountain ranges from SW to NE opens the area of ​​the Yavu Mountains to the mild winter rains that predominantly come from the southwest. Despite total annual precipitation of up to 1500 mm, the natural vegetation is dominated by dry forests, since as a rule no significant precipitation falls from late spring to late autumn - apart from local heat thunderstorms - during the hot Mediterranean dry season. However, the mass of once high-standing forest of evergreen oaks, pines and pines was successively felled in an uncontrolled manner in the past (before and in the 19th century). Today you can only find real forest in the Yavu Mountains in remnants in retreat areas. Although the statistics for the district of Kaş still indicate over 80% forest cover today, the majority of the stock is a typical dense scrub forest maquis (82%) made of low holm oaks and kermes oaks, wild olive trees, mastic trees, Christ thorns, gorse, Ladan bushes, thorny ones Wiesenknopf, among other things, which is used almost exclusively for pasture or charcoal making.

The map shows the recently limited cultivation due to the given karst relief and formerly more extensive (now abandoned) agricultural structures in the Yavu mountainous region

The map shows the situation of the settlement landscape of the Yavu mountainous region at the beginning of the 21st century with special differentiation according to type of location or according to recent, older deserted and ancient locations. What is striking is the high density of ancient sites and abandoned settlement areas compared to the small number of existing settlements.

Settlement and settlement history

The forest uplands of Yavu with almost 100 settlements (including all desert areas) appear relatively densely populated today. However, poor economic opportunities there forced the farmers to split up their settlements into numerous tiny villages, hamlets and farmsteads. Each municipality therefore has several districts (administratively). It is not dominated by the large clustered village, as you find it in Central Anatolia, for example, but the small settlement. None of the ten municipalities there has more than 400 inhabitants. The smallest, Belkonak, has barely 50 inhabitants, the largest, the tourist town of Kaleücağız on the coast near Kekova, has almost 500 souls. Yavu in the center of the mountainous region has almost 300 residents in all districts and is one of the largest communities in the region.

Most of these "large communities" are on the edge of the few small depressions that can be used agriculturally, some also on small plateaus in the higher mountains. This situation and its background were already described for the 19th century. Also included are the abandoned settlements, including those that so far can only be identified using field names. In 1998, V. Höhfeld provided a more detailed documentation of the desolations in the Yavu mountains. An urban settlement does not allow the economic potential of the area. Prosperous district towns such as Kaş and Demre are very close to the edge.

About 150 years ago the settlement density was significantly lower and the region was largely still used by nomads. At the end of the 19th century there were Yürüken camps near Sarılar. Increasing population pressure in the recent past has led to some extreme locations in the Yavu Mountains being developed and settled for agriculture. However, the places were often given up again due to the lack of profitability. Numerous abandoned farms and hamlets as well as recent emigration trends provide extensive evidence here. Forms of nomadism no longer exist there, but there are still clear memories of such lifestyles and the awareness among large parts of the population that they are of nomadic Turkish descent. The inhabitants of the Yavu mountainous region have retained their summer settlements (Yayla) to this day, as have the associated seasonal relocations to these summer locations for several months. Basin settlements, e.g. B. Tırmısın, Boğazık and Kılınçlı, which suffer particularly from the summer heat due to their low altitude above sea level, are almost completely deserted at the beginning of September. Its residents await the cooler season on the summer high-altitude settlements of the Elmalı plateau around the town of Gömbe.

So far, almost nothing is known about the real age of most of the places there. Many of the villages and farmsteads use building remains from antiquity, so that despite the nomadic past one gets the impression of settlement continuity from pre-Islamic times to the present. Remnants of ancient sites are omnipresent and testify to a lively settlement history at the time. For the Islamic period, the many gaps have not yet been filled.

Agriculture

Small-scale goat husbandry is omnipresent in the Yavu Mountains: Here at the cattle trough at an open cistern near Nenealanı

Due to the naturally given hydrological isolation of the karst landscape of the Yavu Mountains between the steep Mediterranean coast and the deep notches of the Kasaba Depression and Demre Çayı Gorge, the Yavu Mountains are characterized by endemic drought. The corresponding poverty of sources, combined with the typical Mediterranean aridity in summer, is a decisive limiting factor for economically viable farming. Up until a few decades ago, the extremely extensive agriculture in the Yavu mountainous region was largely based on keeping small animals (goats) and marginal farming (grain, chickpeas). In addition, there is a lack of the necessary extensive agricultural areas, such as B. offer the neighboring Kasaba Depression or the coastal plain of Demre, which strongly encouraged a process of emigration. Although this natural disadvantage has recently been sought to mitigate by building dams in the hinterland and installing water pipes from there, the prevailing trend towards abandoning farms and moving to the fertile coastal plains and larger cities is evident, so that the settlements of the Yavu mountainous region have lost over 60% of their residents in the last few decades. The places Belkonak, Çerler, Gökçeyazı and Kılınçlı, but also the municipality of Yavu, are particularly affected. These migration patterns are documented not least in the very complex kinship relationships between the inhabitants of the high mountain places or the coastal villages and the "mother places" in the mountainous region of Yavu.

Modernization of agriculture in the Yavu mountainous region: Greenhouse facilities have conquered the agricultural areas traditionally used decades ago in an ova near Kapaklı

Since the connection of the Yavu mountainous area to the reservoirs in the hinterland via water pipes, the land use situation there has stabilized significantly over the past 30 years. A look on the Internet at the latest satellite images from Google Earth shows convincingly that the greenhouse cultures practiced in the Mediterranean coastal plains of Turkey for over half a century have now also successfully conquered the small and large basins of the Yavu mountainous region.

literature

• Volker Höhfeld: Natural space and natural space problems in a migration region: Aspects of land use and settlement development in the central Yavu mountainous region (south-west Turkey) using a cultural landscape structure . In: Istanbul communications . tape 41 , 1991, pp. 259 .
• Volker Höhfeld: Desolations in the mountains of Yavu (Lycia): A preliminary documentation . In: Frank Kolb (Ed.): Lykische Studien 4, Asia Minor Studies . tape 29 . Habelt, Bonn 1998, p. 131-176 .
• Frank Kolb: Burg-Polis-Bishopric. History of the settlement chamber of Kyaneia in southwestern Turkey . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3900-1 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Volker Höhfeld: Wüstungen im Bergland von Yavu (Lycia): A preliminary documentation . In: Frank Kolb (Ed.): Lykische Studien 4, Asia Minor Studies . No. 29 . Habelt, Bonn 1998, p. 131 .
2. ↑ Carl Ritter: The geography of Asia . Part 19. Reimer, Berlin 1859, p. 1143 .
3. ↑ Spratt tab; Edward Forbes: Travels in Lycia, Milyas, and the Cibyratis, in company with the late Rev. ET Daniell . Vol. 2. London 1847, pp. 137 .
4. ↑ Eugen Petersen; Felix von Luschan: Travels in Lycia, Milyas and Kibyratis . tape 2 . Vienna 1889, p. 8 .
5. ^ WW Wurster: Ancient settlements in Lycia. Preliminary report on a survey company in the summer of 1974 . In: Archäologischer Anzeiger . 1976, p. 37 .
6. ^ Charles Thomas Newton: A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Branchidæ. Ed .: Charles Thomas Newton. tape 2 , no. 1 . London 1862, p. 341 .
7. ↑ Carl Ritter: The geography of Asia. Part 19. Reimer, Berlin 1859, p. 1132, 1136 .
8. ↑ Eugen Petersen; Felix von Luschan: Travels in Lycia, Milyas and Kibyratis . tape 2 . Vienna 1889, p. 8 .
9. ^ Ertuğ Öner: Kaş-Demre platosunda fiziki Coğrafya araştırmaları. Antik Kyaneai kenti ve çecresi . Ed .: Ege Ünivers. Edebiyat faculty. Coğrafya Bölümü. Izmir 1993, p. 7 Fig. 2 .
10. ↑ P. Colin: Geological surveys in the area Fethiye - Antalya - Kaş - Finike (SW Anatolia) . In: Maden Tektik ve Arama Enstitüsü Bülteni . tape 59 , 1962, pp. 19-61 .
11. ↑ C. Pisoni: Kaş (Antalya İli) Bölgesinin Jeolojik Etüdü . In: MTA Ens. Dergesi . tape 69 , 1967, pp. 42-49 .
12. ↑ Spratt tab; Edward Forbes: Travels in Lycia, Milyas, and the Cibyratis, in company with the late Rev. ET Daniell. Vol. 2. London 1847, pp. 86 f .
13. ^ Köy İşleri Bakanlığı: Köy envanter etüdlerine göre Antalya . In: Köy İşleri Bakanlığı (Ed.): Köy İşleri Bakanlığı Yayınları Serisi . tape 76 , no. 27 . Ankara 1968.
14. ↑ Eugen Petersen; Felix von Luschan: Travels in Lycia, Milyas and Kibyratis . tape 2 . Vienna 1889, p. 60 .
15. ↑ Volker Höhfeld: Wüstungen im Bergland von Yavu (Lycia): A preliminary documentation . In: Frank Kolb (Ed.): Lykische Studien 4, Asia Minor Studies . tape 29 . Habelt, Bonn 1998, p. 131-176 .
16. ↑ Carl Ritter: The geography of Asia . Part 19. Berlin 1859, p. 1141 .
17. ↑ Eugen Petersen; Felix von Luschan: Travels in Lycia, Milyas and Kibyratis . tape 2 . Vienna 1889, p. 61, 64 .
18. ↑ Volker Höhfeld: Natural space and natural space problems in a migration region: Aspects of land use and settlement development in the central Yavu mountainous region (south-west Turkey) based on a cultural landscape structure . In: Istanbul communications . tape 41 , 1991, pp. 259 .
19. ^ Frank Kolb: Burg-Polis-Episcopal seat. History of the settlement chamber of Kyaneia in southwestern Turkey . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-8053-3900-1 .
20. ↑ C. Hofmann: The Yavu-Bergland - Chances of a potential emigration area presented at the Turkish sample locations Ürer, Yavu and Tırmısın on the one hand and Gömbe, Demre and the urban Finike on the other . Thesis. Tubingen 1994.