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Archive for the Category »Antalya «
Alanya, ancient Korakesion, which rises at the foot of an enormous 250m high rock, is 2km from the sea. Alanya reminds one of a landscape picture of Gibraltar. The picturesque position, the long beautiful seashore, the pleasant climate, nice hotels and bungalows make this town a popular holiday resort. Alanya is the most beautiful town of the Turkish Riviera after Antalya.
History
A castle was built on the rocks of ancient Korakesion by pirates in in the 2nd century B.C. in 67 B.C. the Roman general Pompey destroyed the pirates’ fleet and had the castle razed to the ground. Alanya was a place of importance from the Roman Empire period to the Byzantine Empire period. After being captured by the Seljuk sultan Alaettin Keykobat in 1220, Alanya gained prosperity. He called this small town Alaiye (the noble), had a winter palace built here, and an arsenal established for his fleet. in 1471 the city was con-quered and became part of the Ottoman Empire. Since that time Alanya has been Turkish. The historical buildings of Alanya are almost all of Seljuk origin, and date from the 13th century.
Phaselis is scenically one of the most beautiful ruined sites of the Turkish Mediterranean coast. It is situated 56km from Antalya Turkey.
History of Phaselis
According to ancient references, Phaselis was under Persian rule in the 6th century B.C. The founders of the city were colonists from Rhodes. In 333 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered the city. And after his death the Egyptians became the rulers of Phaselis. In the 2nd century B.C., Lykia, and along with it Phaselis, were made independent by the Roman Senate. In 129 A.D. Hadrian visited this city.
During the following centuries, Phaselis was conquered by the Arabs and by sea invaders many times. The city gradually lost significance, until it was conquered by the Turks in the 12th century.
Places of Interest
The city had three harbours: the northern harbour, the main harbour and the southern harbour. The southern harbour was the largest among these and it was protected by a long mole which is now under water. The main harbour is in the middle and is much smaller than the other two. Compared with those two harbours the northern harbour offered ships a large anchorage area. A marble street connects the southern harbour to the main harbour. At the southern harbour is a gate called the Hadrian Gate which was built in honour of the Emperor Hadrian during his visit. There are three agoras side by side between the gate and the northern harbour. On the same street opposite them are a Roman bath, and a small Roman theatre which was built into the side of the acropolis hill. On the coast behind the first agora stands the aqueduct which is the best preserved structure of Phaselis, and carried water from the mountains to the city. Turkish archaeologists began their excavations here in 1981.
Information on Side ;
Side, about 60 km east of Antalya as the crow flies, was the largest port of ancient Pamphylia and occupied a peninsula, about 1 km in length and 1150 to 1300 feet in width, projecting to the south-west and breaking the monotony of the straight, sandy coastline between the mouths of the Eurymedon and the Melas.
Side, a town built on the sea and essentially a port, was very different from Perge and Aspendus. We do not know the exact origin of its inhabitants, for the accounts that have come down to us in legends and traditions are contradictory. The people spoke a special dialect, and a surviving bilingual inscription suggests according to recent interpretations that it was a 3rd- or 2nd-century B.C. Indo-European language. But it has also been thought that it may have been an early Phoenician settlement, a “Sidon” (fishing centre).
Site
The site, indeed, is the kind that attracted the Phoenician navigators. It is a peninsula, fairly easy to wall off on the land side although not very high and most important of all with a watering place for ships. The water was less good than that of nearby Melas, but it was more easily accessible, and the site was the only natural one for a harbour along the whole of the flat, sandy coast of eastern Pamphylia. Despite the constant silting by deposits from the Melas of the two docks built on either side of the headland, the harbour was very busy. It was difficult to get into, since the entrance of the breakwater had been narrowed to protect it against the sands, and there was a proverb, “It was like entering the harbour of Side“, to describe a particularly difficult undertaking. The town games included ceremonies to celebrate happy landings. But human ingenuity triumphed, and the port enjoyed an active trade. It was a large shipbuilding centre, a busy centre of piracy in the 2nd and 1st centuries B.C., and a large slave market.