Pictures photos images of Kaunos ( Caunus ) was an ancient city located on an inlet on the Aegean Sea, Turkey. Photos by photographer Paul E Williams. Kaunos was the mythical Greek son of Miletos, Apollo's Son. He fell in love with his twin sister Byblis and in an attempt to avoid his illicit passion Kaunos ran away and built a new city far away. In the 5th cent. B.C Kaunos was a city on the border of Lycia and Caria. The rock tombs on the edge of Kaunos are fronted with Hellenistic Ionic order temple fronts. Similar to Lycian rock tombs except that the rock is carved around the sides of the tombs almost making them freestanding. The rock tombs are cut into the cliffs above the River Dalyan that runs below. Kaunos sits on a hilly outcrop above a natural harbour that is today silted up. It is a wild archaeological site with a picturesque backdrop of rounded hills and the Aegean Sea in the distance. Kaunos has a large, as can be seen in our photos, 2nd cent. B.C amphitheatre that sat 5000 people which gives some idea of the importance and size of the city. On a flat man made platform is a temple and a round sanctuary. When excavated by Professor Ogun an obelisk was found 6 meters below the temple at the level of an older temple site. This is thought to represent the god Basileos Kaunos to whom offerings would have been made. Our pictures of the remains of a Byzantine christian church on the upper terrace show that the roof has fallen in but the church is the best example of a 5th cent. church in Anatolia. Today Kaunos is still the seat of a Bishopric although the seat is vacant. The history of the city is the same as for all the Aegean cities. In the 4th cent. B.C Kaunos came under Persian rule until 334 B.C when Alexander the Great took the city. After Alexanders death Kaunos came under the control his General Ptolemy and whose family ruled Egypt until his line finished with the death of Cleopatra. It then became a Roman city

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