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More about Side

In order to protect itself from threats coming by land or sea, Side was surrounded on all four sides by high walls. The sea walls have been much altered over the centuries due to repair and rebuilding and have most much of their original appearance; they have even collapsed in several places. By contrast, the land walls and their towers are almost whole, due to their having been carefully constructed of conglomerate stone. The city is entered through two gates in the eastern fortification wall. The large main gate was built during the Hellenistic period. It is flanked by two towers and gives onto a horseshoe-shaped courtyard. After passing through the courtyard and a square room, one enters the city. As is the case in Perge, the gate and courtyard complex were ornamented with many storeys of columns in the second century A.D. and transformed into a ceremonial place of honour. The second largest city gate, also belonging to the Hellenisitic period, lies on the north-east of the city; behind its square towers lies a courtyard that is also square in form.

The main street starts from this north-eastern gate and stretches all the way to the peninsula's western tip in an almost completely straight line. Along this street lay the city's principal official buildings and its squares. Excavations have revealed a perfectly planned sewer system. This system, covered with vaults, lay under the main street as well as the smaller streets. Outside the city wall and opposite the main gate lies the nymphaeum, a monumental fountain consisting of a richly ornamented facade with three niches and with a fountain in front. Piped-in water used to flow from spouts in the middle of these niches.

The agora, the city's centre of commercial and cultural activity, lay along an arcaded street. It can be entered today from 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.

The agora bathhouse, today used as the museum, is a five-room Byzantine structure dating to the fifth century A.D. It is entered through two arched doorways. The first room, possessing a small cold water pool, was the frigidarium. From here one passes to a stone-domed sweating room or lokonicum. The third and largest of the structure's rooms is the hot room or caldarium. The bath's heating system ran beneath the marble flooring. From the caldarium one can enter the two-room tepidarium or washing area through a narrow door. In front of the bath was a palaestra with a porticoed courtyard where men could excercise before bathing.

The theatre is the only extant example of its plan and construction type to be fount in Anatolia. It was erected in the second century A.D. on Hellenistic foundations. Because Side is virtually flat, the theatre's upper banks had to be built into the only natural rise available, which is not very steep, while the lower banks of seats overlay an arched substructure. Twenty nine seating levels can be counted below the 3.30 metre-wide diazoma, which divides the cavea in two. In the upper section only twenty two of the original twenty nine rows survive. Thus, this was Pamphylia's largest theatre and had a seating capacity of 16-17.000 people.

During the troubles of the fourth century A.D., a new fortification wall was built, and this wall took advantage of the high back wall of the stage building. During the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., the theatre was used as an open-air church, and the parados sections were decorated with floor mosaics and transformed into small chapels. The most varied and beautiful temples in all of Pamphylia are to be found in Side. Two stupendous temples rose on the peninsula's southern point, right next to each other, the sea and the harbour. These temples were built in the second half of the second century A.D.. Consisting entirely of marble, they are of the peripteros type and employ the Corinthian order. The short sides have six columns each, the long sides eleven. In the fifth century A.D. a large basilica was built in front of these temples, incorporating them into its atrium. Despite being heavily damaged, the temples' ancient configuration can be determined. Because Side's patron goddess was Athena, it is highly probable that one of the temples was dedicated to Athena, who in consequence, would have been featured extremely prominently as a protectress of the harbour and of sailors. As for the other temple, it must have been dedicated to Apollo. Restoration of the Temple of Apollo is ongoing.

Further on, to the east of the last big square off the arcaded street, lies a semicircular temple dedicated to the god Men. The cella of this temple was entered from the west by a staircase up the high podium. At the top of the stairs are four Corinthian columns. This temple dates to the end of the second century A.D. Between the arcaded street and the theatre lie the remains of an early Roman temple. Of this temple, which is of the pseudo-peripteral type, only the podium remains. The podium remains is ascended from the north by seven steps. In front of the cella rise four granite Corinthian columns. Because of its proximity to the theatre, it is thought that this temple belonged to Dionysos.

Dating to the third century A.D., the biggest of Side's three public baths lies on the arcaded street. Its dimensions are 40x50 metres and it is a beautiful building in a fine state preservation. Its various rooms are vaulted. The broad courtyard in front of this building was most likely used as a palaestra. In order to satisfy their 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 kilometre journey on two-storeyed 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 intermiltently.

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