Letoon
interest
UNESCO Status
World Heritage Site (1988, with Xanthos)
Key Discovery
Trilingual Inscription (Lycian/Greek/Aramaic)
Temples
Three temples to Leto, Apollo, and Artemis
Political Role
Federal sanctuary of the Lycian League
“Letoon's trilingual inscription is one of the key documents in the study of Anatolian languages, providing the parallel texts that enabled scholars to decode the Lycian script.”
Letoon is the federal sanctuary of the Lycian League, a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Xanthos, dedicated to Leto and famous for its trilingual inscription.
read_wikipedia →overview
Letoon was the sacred center of the Lycian Federation — the political and religious heart of the Lycian world. Situated in a lush valley near the Xanthos River, the sanctuary was dedicated to the goddess Leto and her divine children Apollo and Artemis. Three temples arranged side by side form the core of the sacred precinct, surrounded by a nymphaeum (fountain house), a large portico, and a Hellenistic theatre. The largest temple, dedicated to Leto, dates to the late 5th or early 4th century BCE and stands on a raised podium with Ionic columns. The smaller temples to Apollo and Artemis complete the divine triad that was central to Lycian religious identity. The site's most significant archaeological discovery was the Trilingual Inscription (c. 337 BCE), written in Lycian, Greek, and Aramaic. This text — recording the establishment of a cult — was instrumental in the decipherment of the Lycian language, much as the Rosetta Stone was for Egyptian hieroglyphs. A large nymphaeum fed by a natural spring remains partially submerged, creating a hauntingly beautiful scene where ancient mosaics depicting birds and geometric patterns lie beneath shallow water — a reminder of the site's connection to water and the goddess's mythology.
why_it_matters
evidence
evidence_desc
confirmed
3- The trilingual inscription (c. 337 BCE) in Lycian, Greek, and Aramaic was crucial for deciphering the Lycian language and confirms the sanctuary's federal religious role.
- Architectural remains of three temples dedicated to Leto, Apollo, and Artemis have been excavated and dated from the 5th to 2nd centuries BCE.
- Ancient literary sources (Strabo, Appian) identify Letoon as the principal federal sanctuary of the Lycian League.
inferred
1- The natural spring at the site suggests the location may have been considered sacred before the construction of the Lycian temples, given the widespread worship of water sources in Anatolian religions.
debated
1- The chronological relationship between the three temples and whether they were part of a unified building program or built incrementally remains debated.
excavation
French Archaeological Mission
led_by Henri Metzger
Henri Metzger led systematic excavations uncovering the temple complex, nymphaeum, and the trilingual inscription.
Continued French-Turkish excavations
led_by Jacques des Courtils
Christian Le Roy and then Jacques des Courtils continued excavations, focusing on the theatre and peripheral structures.
Conservation work
Ongoing conservation and water management efforts to protect the partially submerged nymphaeum mosaics.
more_photos
artifacts
Community Photos
Share your experience
Have you visited this site? Upload your photos to help others discover it.
location
related_sites
sources
- Le sanctuaire de Letoon et la civilisation lycienne — Henri Metzger (1979)
- The Lycians in Literary and Epigraphic Sources — Trevor Bryce (1986)
- Wikipedia — Letoonlink