The beauties of nature are like patches of heaven on earth. Surrounded by natural beauty, this temple lies smack in the middle of the road connecting Xanthos, ancient Lycia’s greatest city, to the sea, just above the shore where the blue of the sea meets the blue of the sky. Known today as Kumluova, it is one of Turkey’s most popular touristic spots between Kas and Fethiye, where the silence of the meadows is broken only by the sounds of birds and frogs.
The gleaming white fragments of the Hellenistic columns hewn from fine marble have been lying there in the water for longer than anyone can know. A foundation wall completely covered in decorations, rows of stone and friezes with figures in the shape of date palm branches...A roof gutter whose spouts are shaped like heads of lions, column drums...All lie there scattered indifferently in the water. According to researchers, the fragments must have absorbed water since they all toppled forward into it.In all probability it was also the water, regarded as sacred in antiquity, that saved them.