About Side
On the Manavgat coast, Side is a celebrated Pamphylian city with peninsula harbours, a large theatre and the seafront Temple of Apollo. Colonnaded streets and agoras extend into the modern settlement, while the temple columns express its enduring connection with the sea.
History
Although foundation traditions refer to Aegean migration, a local Anatolian language survived here for a long time. Natural harbours made Side a trading centre, changing hands among Hellenistic powers. Affected by piracy in the first century BCE, it regained prosperity under Rome, adding a monumental theatre, baths, temples and waterworks. It became an important late antique bishopric. Harbour silting and attacks reduced settlement, and the peninsula was resettled in later times.
Highlights and principal structures
- Temples of Apollo and Athena
- Great Theatre
- State agora
- Commercial agora
- Colonnaded streets
- Vespasian Monument
- Harbour bath
Historical period
Hellenistic–Roman–Byzantine