phellos

Phellos, also spelled Phellus, is the name given to an ancient city in Lycia, a region of southwestern Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). The city is mentioned in classical geographic sources and in Lycian inscriptions, but its exact location has not been securely identified by archaeological evidence.

Scholars have proposed several possible locations within the Lycia region, spanning coastal and inland areas, but there is no consensus about where Phellos stood. The surviving material concerning Phellos is fragmentary, consisting mainly of textual references that preserve the city's name and occasional inscriptions. Because definitive ruins or inscriptions clearly linking a identified site to Phellos have not been established, many details about its size, political status, economy, and role within Lycian society remain uncertain.

In modern scholarship, Phellos is primarily of interest to researchers studying Lycian geography, toponymy, and the broader picture of Lycian urban networks. The name also appears in various spellings, with Phellus being a common Latinized form found in classical texts and scholarly works. As a provisional entry in the map of ancient Lycia, Phellos illustrates the challenges of reconstructing Lycian history from dispersed and fragmentary sources.

See also Lycia, Lycian League, Phellus (variant spelling).