Sarcophagus of Merehi

The Sarcophagus of Merehi stands in the northern necropolis of Xanthos, the Lycian capital near today's village of Kınık, among a cluster of monumental tombs that also includes the famed Harpy Tomb and Lion Tomb. Dated to the Lycian Dynastic period, around the fourth century BC, it belongs to the local tradition of raising carved stone sarcophagi and pillar tombs to mark the graves of ruling families and nobility, a practice that turned Xanthos's skyline into a showcase of funerary architecture visible across the Xanthos valley. Named for the figure recorded in its inscription, the tomb is one of many such monuments that made Xanthos, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the richest surviving sources for understanding how Lycia's elite commemorated their dead in stone.