Place of an ancient mountain revealed 

ANTALYA

The location of the ancient Masa Mountain, plundered by people who migrated to the Oinoanda region of today’s western province of Muğla approximately 2,300 years ago from Termessos ancient city in modern day Döşemealtı district of Antalya, has been determined.

It has been found that the ancient Masa Mountain, which was the subject of a lawsuit filed in Greece’s Kos island because it caused border clashes between the immigrant Termessians and the Lycians, is today’s Hacıosman Mountain.

Termessos was two of the most important settlements of Lycia 2,300 years ago. Those, who migrated to the Oinoanda region in Muğla’s Seydikemer district, founded another city and the mountain became a subject of conflict between the people of the two cities. 

Under the light of the information on the Letoon inscription, which dates back to 160-150 B.C., a surface survey has been carried out in Lycian region. The studies, headed by Fatih Onur, an academic and professor at Akdeniz University Faculty of Letters’ Department of Ancient Languages and Cultures, revealed that the mystic mountain was the current Hacıosman Mountain located in the southeast of Bayırköy in Seydikemer district. 

According to the Letoon inscription, it was ruled that the mountain belonged to the ancient city of Tlos in the end of the lawsuit regarding the mountain, which was the subject of the known “first border conflict.” But it was ruled that Termessans at Oinoanda could use its wood and grass, being prohibited to saw, to harvest or to build on its lands, and Lycians had to pay 25 talents of new Rhodian silver plinthophors to Termessans at Oinoanda. 

Despite the fact that the surroundings of the mountain have been described extensively using many geographical definitions such as roads, valleys, streams, a mountain pass, plateaus, stony areas in the Letoon inscription, Onur said that its location could not be found since 1993, when the inscription was found. 

After a detailed map study in 2019, the professor stated that they identified the valleys and streams mentioned in the inscription, adding, “Two streams were mentioned in the Letoon inscription. We understood that the stream with the name Golbanounda was the Hacıosman stream in the Seydikemer district in the southeast of Bayırköy, and the other one named Endyrenos was the Sarısu stream in the east of Gökbel Plateau.

The valleys, mountain passes and plateau areas mentioned in the inscription were also determined and it was revealed that the ancient Masa Mountain is today’s Hacıosman Mountain.”