PLA´TANUS
PLA´TANUS (
Πλατανοῦς), according to the Stadiasmus ( § § 178, 179), a coast-town of Cilicia Aspera, 350 stadia west of Anemuriun.
This distance is incorrect. Beaufort remarks that “between the plain of
Selinti and the promontory of
Anamur, a distance of 30 miles, the ridge of bare rocky hills forming the coast is interrupted but twice by narrow valleys, which conduct the mountain torrents to the sea.
The first of these is
Kharadra; the other is halfway between that place and
Anamur.” The latter, therefore, seems the site of Platanus, that is, about 150 stadia from Anemurium.
The whole of that rocky district, which was very dangerous to navigators, seems to have derived the name of Platanistus (
Strab. xiv. p.669) from Platanus. (Leake,
Asia Minor, p. 200).
[
L.S]
