Turkey City: Side
Approximately 25 km east of Aspanda and 75 km from Antalya lies the ancient Side – the meeting place for Anthony and Cleopatra, one of the largest border cities of Pamphilia.
City, whose name is translated as "Garnet", was founded in the VII century BC. NS. As a port, occupying rocky and convenient for defense Cape. He then turned into a rich and infamous workman and piracy center, and after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Side was subjected to several Arab invasions, almost destroyed it. Only at the beginning of the 20th century, Muslims who fled from the island of Crete built on the site of the ancient settlement the village of Selimie, who became the center of tourist boom for many decades later (it is interesting that the locals did not want to sell their lands long before this coast became a famous resort as if feeling his future). By and large, Selimia is the correct name of the village, and modern Toponym Side indicates only all this resort coastal zone from Kumkey to Manavgata and further to the mouth of the carpus.
- Marina Side
- Modern and antique Side
Nowadays, Side is considered one of the most saturated tourist infrastructure of Turkey resorts, and local residents begin to recognize that their homeland has been practically erased from the face of the Earth with an inadvertent construction of the first years of boom, and the coast itself has changed almost unrecognizable. However, it is the tourist investment that retained the ruins of an ancient port, which were already on the verge of destruction, as well as to open many structures that were completely unknown earlier, turning the Side and in an interesting archaeological monument.
sights
In Side, you can see several fragments of old Urban Walls (Section of the Eastern City Gate is especially well preserved), the head of the main street to Agore (it was here that the slave market was located), Ruins Temple Fortune, huge theatre (Login – 10 TRY), Roman term (Now carefully restored and transferred to the city museum, open daily from 8.00 to 12.00 and from 13.00 to 17.00, entrance – 5 TRY) and monumental gates with nifehem (Fountain Vespasiana, 74 g. N. NS.) Nearby.
- Temple of Apollo
- Ancient Side
Closer to the old harbor can be detected Apollo temples and Athens (once they were built into the walls of the huge Byzantine Basilica, but the last practically collapsed – and the temples survived), urban agorrel on the east side of the peninsula, as well as ruins Term Cleopatra behind the Market Nilgin.
Beach
Beautiful sandy shores Side easily explain the popularity of the resort. Thousands of years River Manavgat and numerous small rivers brought from the mountains and small gravel from the mountains, turning this shore into one extended beach, but the same reason destroyed the ancient Side – his harbor scored so quickly with river nanos, which is already in the Roman era to use it without deepening It was practically impossible. Now the best beach of the resort is almost a ten-meter west coast, completely built up of expensive hotels, clubs and sports centers. Beach Sorgun (Sorgun, 3 km east of Selimia) and Kumkoye (Kumkoy, 10 km west of the peninsula) quiet and less crowded rest.
Around the city
7 km northeastern Side lies the town Manavgat – Center for popular river cruises to the waterfalls of the same name (8 km up the river) and the ruins of the ancient city of Seleucia (20 km above the river), as well as hiking routes to the beautiful hills between the Alara Canyon and the River.
