Andriake


Andriake or Andriaca was an ancient city and the port of the ancient town of Myra in Lycia. Appian says that Lentulus broke through the chain which crossed the entrance of the port, and went up the river to Myra. Beaufort gives the name Andráki to the river of Myra. On the north side of the entrance are the remains of large Roman horrea, with a perfect inscription, which states that the horrea were Hadrian's: the date is Hadrian's third consulate, which is 119 CE.
Andriake is mentioned by Ptolemy; and Pliny has Andriaca civitas, Myra. Andriake, then, is clearly the place at the mouth of the small river on which Myra stood, 20 stadia higher up. It must have been at Andriake, as Cramer observes, that St. Paul and his companions were put on board the ship of Alexandria.
Andriake is located in what is now the Demre district of Antalya.
The location has re-opened as an open-air museum with a museum in an old granary. A notice on site has: "Although it was an important harbour of the Lycian region in Ancient Period, in part of the alluvial silt transported by Kokarçay, the port ceased functioning and the ruins of the city Andriake, today engulfed by a swamp, are spread over the two shores of a small bay.
Far from being an independent city in Ancient Period, the city Andriake was a suburb and port of Myra by its location. The inscription located in the city that covers trading laws of the Lycian state from Emperor Nero period exposes the importance of Andriake as a port during this period.
Andriake lived its most prestigious period during Emperor Hadrian. The granarium/grain silo structure and the trade agora/plakoma structure on its eastern side were built in this period. Discovery of inscriptions written in the honour of Constantinus II, Julianus and Valens indicated that Andriake succeeded in maintaining its importance also in later periods.

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