GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT SIDE

One of the best-known classical sites in Turkey, Side was once an ancient harbour of the Pamphylia. Today it's a pretty holiday resort town, with its ancient ruins, two sandy beaches, picturesque harbour, many shops, numerous cafes, bars and wide variety of restaurants. Side is a fascinating and unique place with a charm all of it's own and has something to offer everyone.

There's plenty to do in Side:Watersports, fishing, quad-biking, jeep safari,water rafting, go-carting, horse-riding, boat trips, visiting the historic sites, nearby golf, aqua parks, Turkish baths, diving, to name but a few. You can spend your days relaxing on Sides glorious sandy beach and swimming in the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea. In the evenings you can sample the local cuisine in a choice of fine restaurants and dance the night away at one of the dance bars or nightclubs. Side is 65 km from Antalya, and just 45 minutes from Antalya airport, making it easily accessible.

Side was for centuries a magnet for people forced to leave their native land due to natural disasters or wars. As one approaches Side, ruins appear in every direction: walls, aqueducts, agora, baths, theatre, temples, nymphion and tombs.

The modern history of Side begins in the late 19th century when Turkish migrants from the town of Khania in Crete arrived. They established the village of Selimiye amongst the ruins. The wave of tourism which began in 1960 with local people renting rooms to visitors is today at tidal proportions, carrying the resort into a secure future. It's character which attracts people here has been preserved by blending the modern tourism oportunities and the history.

Today, the agora, the city's centre of commercial and cultural activity, lays along an arcaded street. It can be entered thorough immediately opposite the museum. This square space was surrounded on all four sides by porticoes. Rows of stores can still be observed running behind the north-east and north-west porticoes. An interesting vaulted building lies in the agora's south-west corner adjacent to the theatre once served as the city's latrium or public toilets and is the most highly ornamented and best preserved example in Anatolia. Sewers carried away the waste from this establishment, which had a 24-toilet capacity, while in front of the building ran a channel carrying only purified water.

In order to satisfy their need for a plentiful water supply, the people of Side went to almost superhuman lengths. Water from the head of the Melas river (today's Manavgat Çayi) reached Side after an adventuresome 30 kilometer journey on two-storied arched aqueducts, passing through channels carved out of cliffs, and vaulted tunnels, and across valleys before it was collected in city cisterns, from which it was distributed in clay pipes. Side has been excavated by Turkish archaeologists since 1947, and excavations continue occasionally.

HISTORY OF SIDE

Side, ancient Pamphylia's largest port, is situated on a small peninsula extending north-south into the sea. Strabo and Arrianos both record that Side was settled from Kyme, city in Aeolia, a region of western Anatolia. Most probably, this colonization occurred in the seventh century B.C. According to Arrianos, when settlers from Kyme came to Side, they could not understand the dialect.

After a short while, the influence of this indigenous tongue was so great that the newcomers forgot their native Greek and started using the language of Side. Excavations have revealed several inscriptions written in this language. The inscriptions, dating from the third and second centuries B.C., remain undeciphered, but testify that the local language was still in use even several centuries after the colonization. An object found in Side excavations, a basalt column base from the seventh century B.C., attributable to the Neo Hittites, provides other evidence of the site's early history.

The word "side" is Anatolian in origin and means pomegranate. We have not sufficient information concerning Side under Lydian and Persian sovereignty.

Nevertheless, the fact that Side minted its own coins during the fifth century B.C. while under Persian dominion, shows that it still possessed a great measure of independence. Among all the ruins in Side, is the theatre, which is the major architectural inheritance and has a capacity of 15 000 seats. The audience section is divided in half by means of a diazoma. Orchestra in a semi-circle curve. Stage building is two or three storey. Late Empire Period gladiator fights and animal fights were made here. In A.D. 5-6 th centuries during Byzantine Period it was used as an open air church. The theatre is dated from middle of A.D. 2nd century.