The city of Xanthos was a centre of culture and commerce for the Lycians, and later for the Persians, Greeks and Romans who in turn conquered the region.

Xanthos influenced its neighbours architecturally; the Nereid Monument directly inspired the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in the region of Caria.

[3] The important religious sanctuary of Leto at Letoon, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) south of Xanthos, dates from the late 6th century BC,[4] and was closely associated with the city and linked by a sacred road.

The Lycians destroyed their acropolis, and killed their wives, children and slaves, before engaging the enemy in a suicidal attack.

Alexander was encouraged when he found a sacred spring close to the River Xanthus, and obtained from there an inscribed bronze tablet that predicted that the Greeks would destroy the Persian Empire.

[12] In 42 BC Brutus came to Lycia in the Roman Civil Wars, to obtain funds for his campaign in that year before the Battle of Philippi.

The Lycian League refused to contribute; Brutus besieged Xanthos and the city was once again destroyed and only 150 Xanthian men survived the carnage.

In his words, 150 “did not escape having their lives saved.” Plutarch explains such suicidal behavior by the city’s similar response to Persian conquest generations earlier.

[22] The Xanthian Obelisk, otherwise known as the Inscribed Pillar, is a trilingual stele which was found in the city; it records an older Anatolian language conventionally known as the Milyan.