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Letoon or Letoum (, ) in the Fethiye district of Muğla Province, Turkey, was a sanctuary of Leto located south of the ancient city of Xanthos, to which it was closely associated, and along the Xanthos River. It was one of the most important religious centres in the region though never a fully-occupied settlement.
Letoon was added as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988.
The site was dedicated to the worship of the Letoids—the Greek goddess Leto, and her twin offspring, Artemis and Apollo. According to a myth, Leto was drinking at a lake in Lycia whilst fleeing with her children Apollo and Artemis from the anger of the goddess Hera. When local peasants tried to drive her away, she rebuked them and transformed them into frogs. Leto may have been identified with an early Luwians goddess whose cult was located with Letoon. The Letoids were designated as the Lycians' national gods.
The sanctity of the site is the purport of an anecdote related by the 2nd century Greek historian Appian concerning Mithridates VI of Pontus, who was planning to cut down the trees in the sacred grove for his own purposes during his siege of Patara, but was warned against this sacrilege in a nightmare.Appian, Mithridates, 27, noted by T. R. Bryce, "The Arrival of the Goddess Leto in Lycia", Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, 321 (1983:1–13). p. 3 and note 9.
The site remained active through the Roman period. It was Christianised by the construction of an church.
The foundations of the three Hellenistic temples dedicated to Leto and her children have been excavated since 1962, under the successive direction of the French Henri Metzger, Jacques Des Courtils and Emmanuel Laroche. Since then, excavations have uncovered most of the site's ruins, most of which are located under the water table of the River Xanthos.
The temple of Leto was successfully reconstructed in its original setting between 2000 and 2007 using original pieces found during excavations carried out since 1950s. , the stadium has not been located.
The complex is dominated by three 4/5th century BC temples. The central temple was dedicated to Artemis. The other two temples, which are Greek, were dedicated to at least one of the other Letoids.
The nymphaeum (which supplied a source of fresh water), is early 2nd century or later. It occupied the site of a Hellenistic structure built over a spring. Spring water used to emerge from the nymphaeum, flanked by a pair of ; of the remains, only those dating from the 3rd century are visible.
The remaining ruins remain largely intact and unaffected by tourism or modern building.
Letoon is a 1st degree archaeological site and so subject to conservation legislation. It is within an Environment Protection Zone under the responsibility of the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanization. The Regional Conservation Council approved a Conservation Plan in 2006.
The architecture influenced that of other Lycian cities such as Patara, Pınara, and Myra.
Visually affected by which surround it, Letton is also threatened by seasonal rising of the water table. The construction of water channels in 2006 acted to mitigate the effect during excavation works. The Turkish government has begun to control the surrounding environment and address issues relating to the preservation of the monuments, such as the management of visitors to the site, and to raise local awareness of its importance.
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