The ancient city is located near the village of Kinik on a hill in a gorgious natural location overlooking the Esen River. Xanthos long remained independent until it was taken over by the Persians: according to Herodotus, were the warriors of Xanthos, an extreme bravery their wives, children and slaves kill entrenched in the burning castle. They even fought to the death. Only a few families that have been removed, survived. The city was completely burned down 475-450 BC. When excavations were in a thick layer of ash confirmed for the site. Rebuilt and repopulated, Xanthos, together with Pinara, Patara and other cities, there was Alexander the Great. The city, which came into the hands of Antigonus, was claimed by Ptolemy I, who took it from him by force in 309 BC.
In 197 BC Antiochus III went on, the company wanted to Lycia from the Ptolemies, an agreement with the Xan-declared free of the city and dedicated to Leto, Apollo and Artemis. After Antiochus’ defeat at Magnesia by Sypile, and because of their support for them, gave Rome Xanthos, the Rhodian. Complained that they were treated like slaves, the Xan-raised so often, that Rome finally ended the rule of Rhodes in 167 BC. During the Roman civil wars of the first Century BC, the Lycian sided with Caesar against Pompey.

But Caesar was in Rome by Brutus and Cassius, who came to Asia Minor, was murdered in order to collect money and recruitsoldiers. How reluctant Lycians to make all contributions, Brutus attacked Xanthos, where were the Lycian League’s soldiers gathered. He destroyed the Acropolis and slaughtered the inhabitants.For the second time in its history in the year 42 BC, the Xan mass suicide for their freedom. Heal Marc Antony, in the hope that the scars left by Brutus, built their city.In Byzantine times the city walls were restored and incorporated into a monastery.The city was deserted, ruined by Arab raids in the 8th Century.

Xanthos was transported in 1838 by Sir Charles Fellows, who had all the reliefs and finds of importance to London, on a warship that was discovered embedded in Patara.

The Hellenistic walls and gates of the city of the Lycian buildings and monuments, the necropolis with a typical Lycian tombs and sarcophagi, grave goods of the columns, the Roman theater, the agora, the Byzantine church mosaics, the Byzantine monastery ,…. are among the most important remains of the archaeological site.

The Monument of the Harpies: the sarcophagus, dating from 480-470 BC, consists of a large piece of carved stone 8.87 m / 29 m high and a little grave chamber on all four sides adorned with reliefs, and closed with a Stone cover. The monument’s reliefs are seeing today plaster copies. The originals, as well as sculptures and sarcophagi of the Nereid Monument (a temple with statues from the Nereid 12 columns) were taken over by Charles Fellows of the British Museum in 1842.