An ancient Lycian city of southern Asia Minor. A major seaport, it was one of the chief cities of the region.
Myra
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My·ra (mī'rə)  |
An ancient Lycian city of southern Asia Minor. A major seaport, it was one of the chief cities of the region.
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Myra |
For more information on Myra, visit Britannica.com.
| Bible Guide: Myra |
An ancient seaport on the River Andracus; lying in the province of Lycia on the southwest coast of Asia Minor, on a site now known as Dembre, it was a center of the grain trade. The name probably referred both to the harbor and the city proper situated on a hill about 3 miles (5 km) inland. As a prisoner bound for Rome, Paul sailed there from Caesarea by way of Sidon on an Adramyttian ship and reached Myra, where he was transferred to an Alexandrian ship.
Concordance
Acts 27:5
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Myra |
| Wikipedia: Myra |
For other uses, see Myra (disambiguation).
Myra is an ancient town in Lycia, where the small town of Kale (Demre) is situated today in present day Antalya Province of Turkey. It was located on the river Myros (Demre Çay), in the fertile alluvial plain between Alaca Dağ, the Massikytos range and the Aegean Sea.
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Historical evidence
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 alliance (168 BC - AD 43); according to Strabo (14:665) it was one of the largest towns of the alliance.
The Greek citizens worshipped Artemis Eleutheria, who was the protective goddess of the town. Zeus, Athena and Tyche were venerated as well.
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 theater was destroyed in an earthquake in 141, but rebuilt afterwards.
There are two necropoli of Lycian rock-cut tombs in the form of temple-fronts carved into the vertical faces of cliffs at Myra: the river-necropolis and the ocean-necropolis. The ocean necropolis is just northwest of the theater. The best known tomb in the river-necropolis (located 1.5 km up the Demre Cayi from the theater) is the "Lion's tomb,"also called the "Painted Tomb." When the traveller Charles Fellows saw the tombs in 1840 he found them still colorfully painted red, yellow and blue.
Andriake was the harbour of Myra in classical times, but silted up later on. The main structure there surviving to the present day is a granary built during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE). Beside this granary is a large heap of Murex shells, evidence that Andriake had an ongoing operation for the production of purple dye.[1]
In early Christian times, Myra was the metropolis of Lycia. The town is traditionally associated with Saint Paul, who changed ships in its harbor. Saint Nicholas of Myra was the bishop of Myra in the 4th century, and was an ardent opponent of Arianism at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Myra became the capital of the Byzantine Eparchy of Lycia under Theodosius II, who reigned from 408 to 450.
Siege of 809
After a siege in 809, Myra fell to Abbasid troops under Caliph Harun al-Rashid. The town went into a decline afterwards. Early in the reign of Alexius I Comnenus (ruled between 1081 - 1118), Myra was again overtaken by Islamic invaders, this time the Seljuk Turks. In the confusion, sailors from Bari in Italy seized the relics of Saint Nicholas, over the objections of the monks caring for them, and spirited the remains away to Bari, where they arrived on May 9, 1087, and soon brought that city visitors making pilgrimage to Saint Nicholas.
The church of St. Nicholas at Myra
Main article: Saint Nicholas
The earliest church of St. Nicholas at Myra was built in the 6th century. The present-day church was constructed mainly from the 8th century onward; a monastery was added in the second half of the 11th century.
In 1863, Tsar Alexander II of Russia purchased the building and began restoration, but the work was never finished. In 1963 the eastern and southern sides of the church were excavated. In 1968 the former confessio (tomb) of St. Nicholas was roofed over.
The floor of the church is made of opus sectile, a mosaic of coloured marble, and there are some remains of frescoes on the walls. An ancient Greek marble sarcophagus had been reused to bury the Saint; but his bones were stolen in 1087 by merchants from Bari, and are now held in the cathedral of that city.
The church is currently undergoing restoration. In 2007, after several years of refusal, the Turkish Ministry of Culture gave permission for the Divine Liturgy to be celebrated in the church for the first time in centuries.
References
- ^ Gerhard Forstenpointer, et al., "Purple-Dye Production in Lycia - Results of an Archaeozoological Field Survey in Andriake (South-west Turkey)." Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26, 2 (2007):201-214.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Demre-Myra |
- Notes on Myra at Turkish Ministry of Culture site
- Myra Tripod site
- Sites in Myra
- Numismatic Links
- Demre Guide
- Finally a mass in the church of Saint Nicholas in Myra article from AsiaNews.it
"Myra". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/Myra.
Photos and videos
- QTVR fullscreen panoramas of the Church of St. Nicholas and the Roman theatre
- Myra Guide and Photo Album
- Demre - Kale Guide and Photo Album
- Livius.org: Myra (Pictures)
Coordinates: 36°15′50″N 29°58′18″E / 36.26389°N 29.97167°E
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Bible Guide. Illustrated Dictionary & Concordance of the Bible. Copyright © 1986 by G.G. The Jerusalem Publishing House, Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Myra". Read more |
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