The city is located by a sheltered cove connected to the sea by a narrow passage, in the north of Kekova Island. Today it is known as Üçağız/Tristomos. Teimiussa was established as a port city like the nearby cities Simena and Aperlai in the Kekova region, but it had an advantage with having an unrestricted land route to the fertile agricultural fields at the inner land. It is understood from the inscriptions found in the city that Teimiussa was serving as a port of both the inland city of Kyaneai and the nearby large metropolis Myra. Teimiussa and the neighboring Tyberissos may have formed a sympolitea with Myra during the imperial Roman period. The city is known to have been inhabited since at least the dynastic period and it grew further in the Hellenistic period with the developing maritime trade. Six different fish sauce processing workshops identified by the surveys testify to the high volume of trade of the city. As in Simena and Aperlai, it is possible to see the traces of the submerged coastal structures in Teimiussa as a result of the earthquakes. Despite this, its maritime trade activity continued in the Roman and Byzantine periods.
The ruins of the city are within and around the modern day village. A crowded number of tombs are the most eye-catching monuments among the modern day coastal structures developed by tourism. Many well-preserved sarcophagi attract attention in the necropolis located at the eastern end of the village. Some of the dynastic period rock-cut tombs bear Lycian inscriptions. The plaza by the modern day harbor is the location of the ancient harbor, which was filled with alluvial deposits of the small stream flowing through it. The remains of the bath and church belong to later periods.
References:
Aslan, E. 2011. Kekova Bölgesi Limanları, Yayınlanmamış Doktora Tezi, Selçuk Üniversitesi, Konya.
Çevik, N. 2021. Lykia Kitabı: Arkeolojisi, Tarihi ve Kültürüyle Batı Antalya, Türk Tarih Kurumu, Ankara.
Mayer, L. 1803. Views in the Ottoman Empire, London.
Tietz, W. 2016. ‘Central Lycia: Kyaneai, Phellos, Kekova’, in From Lukka to Lycia: The Land of Sarpedon and St. Nicholas, eds. H. İşkan & E. Dündar, 362-373, İstanbul.
Zimmermann, M. 1992. Untersuchungen zur historischen Landeskunde Zentrallykiens, Bonn.
Image sources:
L. Mayer, 1803
W. Tietz, 2016
Bora Bilgin, 2022