Aspendos is situated on the hill of an acropolis, at a height of 40 metres,and 6 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea. The name of the city  in the  Luwian language was “Asiawanda” meaning “Country of Horses”.

The old Greeks spelled  the name as Aspendous, According to tradition.

Aspendos is founded by Greek colonists from Argos of mapsos,  who came to Pamphylia after the Trojan War, around 13 th century BC and started to grow.

We are now on the Belkıs bridge,it has a length  of  225 meters and known as eurymedon in ancient time.

 Köprü Çay  is a bridge with foundations built of block stones during the Roman era which was later rebuilt by the Seljuks with eight pointed arches upon ruined foundations.

Aspendos was an important trade city because of the convenience of the creek Eurymedon ,for maritime transportation during the era before Christian and Roman era. The horses bred in the area, salt and cheap wines were the most important export products. As a result of the river gradually being filled with alluvia, marine transportation became impossible and the city remained 6 km inland away from the sea.

The Aspendos Theatre  today  has been accepted as the best preserved antique theatre with the best acoustics in the world.

The theater’s capacity is estimated to have been 15,000 sittin places.

The cavea has a diameter of 95 m  and a height of 30 m .

It was built by a local architect Xenon during the reign of Marcus Aurelius in the  2th cenruy Ada Domini, According to an inscription, it was a gift from  two brothers, Curtius Crispinus and Curtius Auspicatus, who dedicated this monument to the gods of the country and to the Imperial House.

The upper side of the auditorium is surrounded by 58 columns and a gallery consisted of an arch.

 Caveas consisting of a total of 41 seat places are divided into two by diazoma on the 20th tier and magazine chambers have been built on a diazoma where spectators would shop and shelter from the sun.

The cavea is semicircular in shape and divided in two by a large diazoma.

The cavea has 41 rows seat place and  21 rows of seats above and 20 seats below. and by 10 radiating stairways in the lower seating section and 21 stairway  in the upper section,

beginning at the diazoma to provide ease of circulation so that the spectators could reach their seats without difficulty,

some names are carved in the form of gravures at the cavea benches shows that thery were regular customers of the theatre.

The internal face of the stage building is decorated with columns, with 20 Corinthian capitals at the bottom and 20 Ionic capitals at the top,

and these columns are ornamented in-between with niches of various sizes embellished with marble plates and figured reliefs.

 Statues of Gods and the Roman emperors occupied these niches.

On top of the stage building, the relief of Bacuss, God of entertainment and wine,

Actors finishing their preparations in the chambers of various sizes within the stage building appeared through one big door in the middle and 4 small doors at the sides on a wooden podium 2 metres high established over the orchestra and performed their plays on this podium. The plays were generally performed by three people in ancient times and there was a chorus behind the actors consisting of a maximum of 20 people wearing the masks of animal-gods and various mythological heroes. Women were forbidden to take part in the plays.

The fact that theatre initially appeared in the name of Bacuss, God of entertainment and wine, through street festivals during vintage times shows that it was a godly rite in its origin. Therefore, during the Hellenistic era theatre actors were respected with a godly faith. Yet during the Roman era, performers were considered as nothing but humiliated actors.

 The first play performed at the theatre was tragedy. Everybody including the empirer could be  criticised at every point during the play. The actors, descending down the wooden podium at the end of the play, started a  mutual discussion with the spectators and the dialogues on the points criticised continued for hours. ,The speaktators paying stones or metal chips to enter into the theatre, sometimes spent their entire day there.

The Aspendos theatre preserved its true theatrical character during the Byzantine era, never having been turned into an arena where bloodshed games were exhibited.

The theatre, which served as an outdoor church during the late Byzantine era,

the Seljuk Turkish period. The Seljuk leader Alaeddin Kaykabat I renovated the theatre in the 1200, used it as a caravanserai. Red zigzag paintings are decorations from that period

The  Annual Aspendos İnternational Opera and Ballet Festival and Antalya Music and Film Festival gala is performed here every year since 1994

Something else whats interesting of the Roman empire were the Aquaducts,These Aquaducts were constructed in a special way

They used the ‘low of combined Containers’

The water was coming from the Mountanins in the North,and was gathered in a big depot of 30 Mt high,from there they put long pipes with a diameter of 30 cm and so the water could run or flow to the lowest part in the city.in those days The romans had streaming water.

The Aquaduct of Aspendos is located in the mountains 17 kilometers to the north, was carried to within 2 kilometers of the city in a conventional aqueduct channel.

 The aqueduct is thought to have been constructed in the first half of the 2^nd century of Tiberius Claudius.

It incorporated several bridges and tunnels, the channel having modest dimensions, 55-60 cm wide and 90 cm deep on the inside.

The most eye-catching structures are two massive water towers.

the towers were 40 meters, plus the venter was 15 meters

in 363 AD. Such an earthquake could well have destroyed the aqueduct including the  towers.

SİDE-SELİMİYE

SİDE-SELİMİYE

According to Anatolian mythology, Side, Goddess of Nature and Fertility, took her little daughter, went to the valley of the river Manauwa/Manavgat together with the Nymphs. As she is picking flowers with the Nymphs, Side comes across a tree with thin branches, bright leaves and colourful flowers and breaks off the tree branch  to give to her little daughter. Blood starts to drip from the branch. At that instant Side understands that it was actually a Nymph, hide herself as a tree in order to protect herself from the enemies chasing( çeiz) her, and becomes very sad. She wants to walk away quickly. Her feet get stuck in the ground, buried under the earth, and she cannot move. Starting with her feet, her body begins to form a thin layer of bark and to take the shape of a tree. The nymphs, becoming sad at this, weep and wet Side’s roots. Saying what she did was a mistake she tells the Nymphs: “I will hereafter be a symbol of nature, life and fertility with my rich fruit the colour of blood; do bring my daughter here often, so she will play under my shade. Let her not damage any tree. Maybe every tree or flower is a God in disguise.” So, the Side peninsula is filled with the trees of Side believed to have formed as such according to mythology. It is known that the name Side means “Pomegranate” in the Luwian/Etruscan language.

the history of the city dates back to around 4000 B.C. It is thought that the people of Side were engaged in fishing and maritime trade.

The population of the city increased with the immigration of the various Anatolian peoples returning from the Trojan War to Side,during the 9th century B.C. joined the Lydian league in the 7th century and went under Persian sovereignty in 546 B.C.

The city, which opened its gates to the Macedonian King Alexander the Great without resistance in 334 B.C.,

The city passed to the Kingdom of Pergamum for some time and then, becoming a base for pirate attacks early in the 1st century B.C., the biggest slave market of the Mediterranean was established.

 After the 5th century A.D. it became the bishop centre and some of the temples were transformed into Orthodox churches. From the 7th century onwards it was exposed to and ruined and destroyed by the Arab raids and the city people immigrated to the capital of the Pamphylian region, Attaleia. Because of the sand erosion advancing towards the eastern gate and the earthquakes of the 9th and 12th centuries the city was devastate to the ground. The Turks who came to the area in 1207 settled down in the northeast of the ancient city.

The

 Apollon, god of light, art and beauty and the one in the west belongs to Athena, goddess of science, truth and virginity and daughter of Zeus.

The temple constructed in the name of Apollon measures 17x30 m and  form and has columns with Corinthian capitals,

The Temple of Athena , on the other hand, has dimensions of 20x35 m and is encircled with Corinthian columns of the same height as the Temple of Apollon .

It was believed that these temples protected and guided the Side port and Side ships. During the Byzantine Era a basilica was constructed to the North of these two temples.

The remains of a public bath have been restored and now serve as the Museum. At the Museum, Roman period statues and sarcophagi are on display.and  columns, busts, Torcho inscriptions, statues, statue pedestals, capitals, friezes, reliefs and stelae unearthed during excavations are visible. there are statues of gods, emperors, women, men, children and torsos and busts