Side

Side

Türkiye · Antalya

Ancient cityExcavation ongoing
Approximate period700 BCE — 1,400 CEArchaic; Hellenistic; Roman; Byzantine See on the map ↓

In brief

Founded on a peninsula on the coast of Manavgat, Side was one of ancient Pamphylia's important trading and port cities. Alongside the theatre and temples, excavations investigate changes in street and neighborhood layouts from the Roman period to Late Antiquity.

What was found?

  • 1Reliefs of the Herakles Gate

    These are reliefs depicting the Twelve Labors of Herakles. The pieces, dating to the early 3rd century AD, were found to have been reused in the construction of the gate in Late Antiquity.

  • 2Coffers depicting gods and goddesses

    These are decorated architectural pieces at the Herakles Gate bearing depictions of Athena, Zeus, Artemis, Hygeia, and Tykhe. They document how the city displayed divine figures in public architecture.

  • 3Street b

    The route, approximately 390 meters long, runs between the northwestern corner of the gymnasium and the East Gate. Excavations have revealed colonnaded galleries, rooms, and monumental entrances along the road.

  • 4Entrance arrangement associated with the Bishop’s Palace

    These are remains of the route’s reorganization together with the palace complex in the 5th century AD. They show how circulation within the city changed in Late Antiquity.

What does it point to?

In Side, the same street bears the changes extending from the Roman period to Late Antiquity. The use of old reliefs in the new gate and the reorganization of the route in conjunction with the Bishop’s Palace show that urban spaces took on new roles in different periods.

What did it teach us?

  1. Documented the reuse of older architectural reliefs in new monumental entrances.
  2. Revealed the architectural transformation of Street b from the Roman period to Late Antiquity.
  3. Showed the relationship between the arrangement of the Bishop’s Palace and the route of circulation within the city.

Images

Sunrise apollo side
Saffron Blaze · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Latest news / selected archive

In 2026, it was announced that excavations of Street b had been completed and monumental gates decorated with Herakles reliefs had been uncovered.

Record

Culture
Pamphylian; Greek; Roman; Byzantine
First modern dig
1947
Team / historical
Feriştah Alanyalı / Anadolu University
Coordinates
36.7681°, 31.3906°

Sources

  1. antalya.ktb.gov.tr
  2. akmedmedia.ku.edu.tr
  3. edkb.akdeniz.edu.tr
  4. engelsiz.ktb.gov.tr
  5. levantineceramics.org

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