Side Antique City was established in a 350-400 meters area. It is 80 km east of Antalya and 7 km southwest of Manavgat. It is known that Side was the most important port city of Pamphylia in Antiquity. It was a settlement in the 7th century BC. The city has hosted many civilizations throughout history and lived in the Greeks, Lydians, Persians, Romans, Seljuks and Ottomans Periods. For centuries, the city has had strategic importance as a trade and port city.
The ancient city of Side was the center of the diocese in the 5th century and lived its brightest period in the 5th and 6th centuries. However, with the subsequent Arab raids, it lost its power over time. Invasions, looting during the crusades, and natural disasters caused the city to be abandoned. The city was completely emptied in the 12th century. It came under the rule of the Seljuks in the 13th century and the Hamitoğulları Principality and Tekelioğluları in the 14th century. Since the Seljuks and Ottomans did not settle in Side, there are no artifacts from these periods.
Side Antique City, as seen in other Pamphylia cities, stretches along a monumental street starting from the city's main gate. Starting from the 'Great Gate' in the northeast, the main street runs mostly straight along the peninsula and ends in a large square near the temples. The second-largest street of the city also extends from the 'Great Gate' to the south of the city.
Among the evidence surviving today are the city gate, colonnaded streets, walls, commercial agora, state agora, monumental fountain, waterway, houses, theatre, Vespasian Fountain and monumental gate, triumphal arch, Dionysus Temple, episcopal palace and basilica, southern basilica, There is the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Athena, the great bath, the harbor bath, the baptistery, the Philippus Attius Wall and the agora bath used as the Side Museum.
In the center of the city, part of the theater was built in the tradition of Roman Architecture. It is leaning on a slope, from the rows of seats to the road in the middle of the steps. The upper part of the sitting benches is placed on an inclined plane on the vaults. Side Antique Theater is the only building example of Anatolia with this feature.
Your journey into history among the thousands of years old beauties of the Ancient City of Side, which fascinates visitors with its magnificence, will be one of the most unforgettable experiences of your Antalya trip.
