Myra & St. Nicholas Church & Kekova

Visiting: Demre, Myra, St. Nicholas Church, Kekova, Ucagiz

Duration: 4 hours

After picking you up from your port in Demre, you will start the guided tour of Tour of Demre, Myra and Kekova.

An important agricultural town on the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia and the modern counterpart of the ancient town of Myra. It was part of the historic region of Lycia once. Here you can visit the ruins of Myra and see the famous Lycian monuments. The famous rock-tombs of Myra are in two main groups, one above the theatre and the other in a place called the river necropolis on the east side. When the first foreign explorers discovered it, the tombs were colourfully painted with red, yellow and blue. It makes us imagine how colourful the whole cliff face would have been.

After Myra you will get to visit the Church of St. Nicholas. This ruined Byzantine church contains the tomb of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra who lived in the 5th century AD. This priest who later became Santa Claus was famous for his powers of healing he gave to those in need. The earliest church of St. Nicholas was built in the 6th century AD, supposedly over St. Nicholas' tomb. The church was rebuilt before and the present one is from the 9th century. It was further rebuilt in 1042 under the patronage of Constantine X and a monastery was added at that time or shortly after. It was restored by Czar Alexander II who bought it in 1863, but the renovation was not completed. Excavations and restorations were complete during the 1960's and still continue today beginning from the early 1990's, while the wall painting restorations were continued from 2000-2005.