Amos Ancient City

About this place

The best thing at Amos is not the stones but the seat you sit on. A small Hellenistic theatre, cut into Asarcık hill for roughly 1,300 spectators, faces what is left of its stage building and, beyond it, the sea over Turunç and Kumlubük bays, with Rhodes sometimes visible on the horizon on a clear day. Of the three theatres of the Rhodian Peraia, the mainland territory once ruled from Rhodes, this is the only one that keeps remnants of its stage building and orchestra, a distinction archaeologists value more than the average visitor will notice. Beyond the theatre the remains are low and modest: fourth-century BC walls of polygonal masonry standing three to four metres high on the north slope, with five towers and a gate in the north wall that was probably the main entrance; the footprint of a small temple, probably of Apollo Samnaios, a god attested nowhere else; and rock-cut tombs outside the wall. Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University began systematic excavation in 2021 after decades of neglect, so you will find fresh trenches and numbered blocks, but no standing columns and little in the way of explanatory panels. There is no public transport. Drive from Marmaris through İçmeler to Turunç, then follow the narrow but paved Kumlubük road uphill for about ten minutes, roughly forty minutes in all from the town centre. From the end of the road a rocky path climbs for about a quarter of an hour: not pushchair territory, and hard going for anyone with weak knees, though school-age children treat it as an adventure. The alternative is a boat trip from Marmaris that anchors in Amos bay below the hill, but some never go up to the ruins at all, so ask before you book. Entry is free, with no ticket office, no facilities and almost no shade, so carry water and a hat. On an August afternoon the hill is an oven; go before nine in the morning or towards sunset, when the light on the bays is at its best. Forty minutes to an hour is plenty, and the visit makes far more sense folded into a swim at Kumlubük or lunch in Turunç than as an outing in its own right.