XANTHUS (mod. Gunuk)  , an ancient city of Lycia, on the river Xanthus (Eshen Chai) about 8 m. above its mouth . It was besieged by the Persian general Harpagus (546 B.C.), when the acropolis was burned and all the inhabitants perished (Herod. i . 176) . The city was afterwards rebuilt; and in 42 B.C. it was besieged by the Romans under M . Junius Brutus . It was taken by storm and set on fire, and the inhabitants perished in the flames . The ruins lie on a plateau, high above the left bank of the river . The nearest port is Kalamaki, whence a tedious ride of three to four hours round the edge of the great marsh of the Eshen Chai brings the traveller to Xanthus . The whole plan of the city with its walls and gates can be discerned . The well-preserved theatre is remarkable for a break in the curve of its auditorium, which has been constructed so as not to interfere with a sarcophagus on a pedestal and with the " Harpy Monument " which still stands to its full height, robbed of the reliefs of its parapet (now in the British Museum) . In front of the theatre stands the famous stele of Xanthus inscribed on all four sides in Lycian and Greek . Be-hind the theatre is a terrace on which probably the temple of either the Xanthian Apollo or Sarpedon stood .

The best of the tombs—the " Payava

Tomb," the " Nereid Monument," the " Ionic Monument " and the " Lion Tomb "—are in the British Museum, as the result of Sir Chas . Fellows's expedition; only their bases can be seen on the site . A fine triple gateway, much polygonal masonry, and the walls of the acropolis are the other objects of most interest . See O . Benndorf and G . Niemann, Reisen in Lykien uud Karien (1884) . (D . G .