Antalya's Ancient Coast Guide: Olympos to Perge

Olympos, near Çıralı, was one of the six Lycian League cities holding three votes; Strabo names it, it declined after piracy was suppressed around 76 BC and revived under Byzantium with mosaic churches. Right beside it at Yanartaş, methane and hydrogen seeping from the rock have burned for centuries; Pliny the Elder wrote the flame dies neither by day nor night, and myth tied the fire to the Chimaera monster. The flames sit a few kilometres inland from Çıralı, up a stony hillside path.

Rhodian settlers founded Phaselis around 690 BC on an isthmus, and the city is known for its three harbours. Persian rule, the arrival of Alexander the Great and the Roman period layer its history; piracy long threatened the coast. Today the forest site shows a 24-metre-wide ancient street, the Hadrian gate, Roman baths and an aqueduct; it lies about 16 km south of Kemer at the edge of Olympos National Park, reachable by land and, seasonally, by boat.

Greek settlers from Cyme in Aeolis founded Side, most likely in the 7th century BC, on a peninsula about 1 km long. The Temple of Apollo at its tip is the best-known structure; its seaside columns feature in almost every photograph. Less well preserved than the one at Aspendos, the 2nd-century theatre is reckoned to have held 15,000-20,000 people, and the agora holds a round temple to Tyche. The present town, formerly Selimiye, sits among the ruins, roughly 78 km from Antalya.

Aspendos, about 40 km east of Antalya, was the most important city of Pamphylia in the 5th century BC and known for its coinage. Its theatre, built in 155 AD by the local architect Zenon, is regarded as the best-preserved of antiquity; the stage wall (scaenae frons) survives intact and was designed for around 7,000 people. Nearby runs a 19 km Roman aqueduct that uses an inverted siphon in its final stretch. Since 1994 the theatre has hosted the Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival.

Perge, about 15 km east of Antalya, was called Parha under the Hittites; it later became a Greek city in Pamphylia and came under Roman rule around 133 BC. The site shows a stadium, a theatre, a long colonnaded street, the fountain house (nymphaeum) adorned by Hadrian, and Hellenistic gates with towers. Apollonius of Perga, the mathematician born here, is known for his eight-book work on conic sections. Excavations keep uncovering mosaics and statues.