First Olympic flame legend attracts tourists

ANTALYA

The origin of the gas feeding Yanartaş is the subject of scientific research.

Nestled within Beydağları Coastal National Park in the Mediterranean province of Antalya’s Çıralı village, the legendary natural flames of Yanartaş attract groups of domestic and international hikers along the Lycian Way to admire ancient historical remains and roast marshmallows over the eternal fires.

Recent observations at Yanartaş have revealed that flames are no longer visible at some spots where they previously burned, while combustion continues in other rock crevices. Flames rising from separate points across the rocky surface remain the main attraction for hikers visiting the site.

The reason some of the flames have gone out, and whether the change is temporary, has not yet been established.

Tour groups hiking this section of the Lycian Way include Yanartaş in their itineraries. Visitors carrying backpacks and trekking poles take breaks around the flames emerging from the rocks and photograph the natural phenomenon. Most of the visitors at the site are foreign tourists.

Fuzuli Yağmurlu, a professor at Süleyman Demirel University’s Faculty of Engineering who previously studied the area, told the Demiroren News Agency (DHA) in 2017 that the flames were caused by natural gas leaks.

Yağmurlu said the gas may have been ignited in ancient times by lightning or human activity.
“These flames indicate that there is a significant natural gas leak in this area,” he said, offering assessments of the source of the gas rising from underground.

The origin of the gas feeding Yanartaş has also been the subject of international scientific research. A study by Giuseppe Etiope and Artur Ionescu demonstrated experimentally that methane can form at low temperatures without a biological source, with the catalytic effect of the element ruthenium.

The findings are among the scientific explanations for how methane may form in rock environments containing gas emissions, such as those found at Yanartaş.

The flames of Yanartaş are associated with the mythological monster Chimera. According to the legend recounted on the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Culture Portal, Chimera had the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a snake, and breathed fire.

According to the same account, athletic competitions were held on Mount Olympos to celebrate Bellerophon’s victory. Athletes lit their torches using the sacred fire of Yanartaş and ran to Olympos.

The Culture Portal describes these competitions as the earliest examples of the Olympic Games in Anatolia.