Side Ancient City
Side ancient city is a historical and touristic area that attracts everyone visiting Side region. Side, besides its magnificent natural beauty, is a history and culture city which hosted many civilizations and it still carries the traces of these civilizations.
Side Ancient City History: Side is a town connected to the Manavgat district of Antalya province. The ancient city of Side is a port city built on a peninsula of approximately 400 square kilometers. The name of the city which dates back to the 8th century BC is “pomegranate” in the language of the Luvians, one of the most ancient peoples of Anatolia. Side spoke her own language up to the 2nd century and it also had her own money. Side, from the 7th century B.C., lived under rules of Lydians, Persians, Hellenistic kingdoms, Romans, Seljuks, and Ottomans respectively. From the 12th century onwards, the people of the city left the city due to the plundering and attacks of neighboring kingdoms and they mostly migrated to Antalya. In the late 19th century, immigrants from the Crete region settled on the remains of the city and set up the Selimiye neighborhood.
Side Ancient City Remains: Among the remains of the Roman and Byzantine periods you can see in Side ancient city today are the walls and the gate of the city, the basilica, the trade agora, the agora bath which is currently used as Side Museum, the episcopacy palace, the triumphal arch, the Vespasian fountain, the Nymphaeum monumental fountain, ancient theater and temples of Apollo and Athena. Except for the ancient theater and museum, it is free to visit these remains.
