Description : Demre is a town and its surrounding district in the Antalya Province on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, named after the river Demre. Demre is the Lycian town of Myra, the home of Saint Nicholas of Myra. The district was known as Kale until it was renamed in 2005. A majority of Christian Greeks lived in Demre (Myra) until the 1920s when they migrated to Greece as part of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey agreement. The abandoned Greek villages in the region are a striking reminder of this exodus. Abandoned Greek houses can still be seen at Demre and the regions of Kalkan, Kaş and Kayaköy which is a Greek ghost town. A small population of Turkish farmers moved into the region when the Greeks migrated to Greece. The region is popular with tourists today, particularly Christian pilgrims who visit the tomb of Saint Nicholas. Although some scholars equate Myra with the town Mira in Arzawa, there is no proof for the connection. There is no substantiated written reference for Myra before it was listed as a member of the Lycian League (168 BC – AD 43); according to Strabo (14:665) it was one of the largest towns of the alliance. The ancient Greek citizens worshiped Artemis Eleutheria, who was the protective goddess of the town. Zeus, Athena and Tyche were venerated as well. Pliny the Elder writes that in Myra there was the spring of Apollo called Curium and when summoned three times by the pipe the fishes come to give oracular responses. In the Roman period Myra formed a part of the Koine Greek speaking world that rapidly embraced Christianity. One of its early Greek bishops was Saint Nicholas. The ruins of the Lycian and Roman town are mostly covered by alluvial silts. The acropolis on the Demre-plateau, the Roman theatre and the Roman baths (eski hamam) have been partly excavated. The semi-circular theatre was destroyed in an earthquake in 141, but rebuilt afterwards.
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