The story of the marble lion on the square at Köyceğiz, in ten stops. It moves as you scroll; the map shows where the lion and its context were that year. Every stop carries its source.
Closed
to visitors
Kaunos · Dalyan
Kaunos sits directly across from Dalyan, a neighbourhood of Köyceğiz. This harbour city on Karia's southern frontier now stands in the middle of a silted plain.
Institutional source2
Photograph: Kaunos, general view · Kaunos — Dalyan, Köyceğiz · Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
1965
A white marble lion is taken out in an illegal dig at Kaunos. The object survives; where it lay, in which layer and next to what is never recorded.
On-site document1
Photograph: Bases of honorific monuments in the harbour agora — the statues that stood on them are gone · Kaunos — Dalyan, Köyceğiz · Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
1966
Baki Öğün opens the first scientific excavation at Kaunos. It will not miss a single season from then on.
“It was love at first sight. Seeing the ruins, I was as happy as a child.”
Peer-reviewed3
Photograph: Kaunos and the silted plain; Sülüklü Göl at the centre · Dalyan, Köyceğiz · Aerdemsenturk, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
1972–73
The team digs the findspot and a round building, a monopteros, comes to light: female statues between its columns, four lions at its corners. Everything known about the object today rests on that hole, reopened years later.
On-site documentPeer-reviewed14
Photograph: Bases of honorific monuments in the harbour agora — the statues that stood on them are gone · Kaunos — Dalyan, Köyceğiz · Dosseman, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Today · the square at Köyceğiz
Today the lion stands in the open air on the square at Köyceğiz, under a plane tree. It is the district's emblem. We found no public record of when it was brought here.
On-site document1
Photograph: The Lion of Kaunos on the square at Köyceğiz — 23 October 2011 · Köyceğiz · Kjf webmaster, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
2011 · the plaque
The plaque beside it calls the building a sacred monument and the lion a guardian against evil. The district's official page links the ox head under its paw to enemy civilisations. The academic reading says the building was a funerary monument.
“…one of the four lions, which likely had apotropaic function.”
On-site documentInstitutional sourcePeer-reviewedSources disagree124
Photograph: The information plaque beside the statue · Köyceğiz · Kjf webmaster, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
2006–2018
The Köyceğiz Kaunos Golden Lion Turkish Film Festival is held twelve times. After 2018 it is never held again.
Press9
Photograph: Lake Köyceğiz, sunset from a jetty · Köyceğiz · small touch, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
2023
Fethiye Museum, where the Kaunos finds are shown, closes to visitors over earthquake safety. There is still no reopening date.
Institutional source10
2026
The dig completes sixty unbroken years: a structure with a mihrab and coins of Mehmed II, a fountain running again after 2,300 years, a Roman health building. Museums in the district Kaunos lies in: zero.
Photograph: One of the Kaunos rock tombs, close up · Kaunos — Dalyan, Köyceğiz · Tolga Alan, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The proposal
The proposal is not to move the lion. It is a room that shows where it came from, which three lions stood beside it, and who says what on the strength of which source. The lion can stay on the square; its story gets an address.
Proposal
Photograph: The proposed lion room — illustrative concept, not a building design · Concept model — not a real place · Uğur İnal, illustrative concept render
There is no room to tell this story. A signature is the first brick of that room.
… people want this museum. Put your name on the wall too.
Sign — lay a brick