Among the ruins that you can see in Side Antique City , there are city walls, city gate, Nymphaeum, waterway, colonnaded streets, houses, Trade Agora, Ancient Theatre, Agora Bath (Side Museum), Vespasian Fountain.
The Monumental Gate, the Triumphal Arch, the Temple of Dionysus, the basilca, the harbor bath, the Temple of Apollo, the Temple of Athena, the Southern Basilica, the Great Bath, the State Agora, the Baptistery, the Episcopal Palace and Basilka, the Philippus Attius Wall are among the other ancient ruins to visit.
It is free to visit Side Antique City, but to visit Side Museum and Side Antique Theater, you have to pay separately or get a Museum Card.
1. Side Antique Theater
Side Antique Theater is located in the center of the ancient city of Side. In the building, which has the characteristics of Roman architecture, the part of the sitting steps up to the road in the middle is leaning against the hillside. The upper part of the sitting benches is placed on an inclined plane on the vaults. With this feature, Side Theater is accepted as the only building example in Anatolia.
The decorations of the theater, whose stage building has three floors, are baroque in the Antonine Period. The audience capacity of the Side Theater, which is architecturally similar to the Colosseum in Rome , the capital of Italy, is 17 thousand. The theater was used for gladiator and animal fights in the Late Roman Period.
2. Temple of Apollo
Side Apollon Temple is the protagonist of the first photo frames that come to mind when Side is mentioned. Located at the end of the Colonnaded Street of the ancient city of Side, the temple took its name from Apollon, one of the chief gods of Side. Some parts of the temple, which is in the very center of the basilica built during the Byzantine period, were also used in the construction of the basilica.
The temple, which has a magnificent view on the Mediterranean coast in Side, is thought to have been built in 150 BC. Today, the temple, where some of its columns are still standing, provides an insatiable viewing pleasure, especially at sunset.
3. Monumental Fountain
Monumental Fountain is located opposite the main entrance gate of Side Antique City with two towers. The Monumental Fountain (Nymphaeum), built in the 2nd century AD during the Roman period, is considered the largest ancient fountain in Anatolia and the Pamphylia region. The fountain, which is popularly known as ‘Nine Fountains’, is in the process of restoration as part of the ‘History Comes to Light’ project.
4. Side Museum
Side Museum has the title of the first museum opened in a village in Turkey. The bath building, which was restored by covering three parts of it between 1959-1961 by the Master Architect Ragıp – Selma DEVREZ couple, was opened to service as a museum on 14 October 1962. After parking your car in the parking lot of the ancient city, you reach the museum by walking for about 10 minutes through the surviving structures of the ancient city.
The museum serves in the Agora Bath building, which was built in the 2nd century AD in the Ancient City of Side and has survived with the buildings added and changes in the 5th and 6th centuries AD. Museum collection between 1946-1966 Ord. Prof. dr. It consists of artifacts from the Side excavations conducted under the direction of Arif Müfid Mansel.
Among the exhibits, there are sculptures, torso portraits, embossed sarcophagi and ostotes, tomb steles, inscriptions in Greek and Side, altars, amphorae, frieze columns, column capitals, terracotta, glass and bronze finds, coins from the cities of Pamflya and Pisidia.
In the garden of the museum, there are Seljuk Period tomb inscriptions, inscriptions, Roman Period friezes, sarcophagi, column bases and columns, mosaic pieces, busts and sculptures.
Side Antique City is one of the most important historical ancient cities in Antalya and the Mediterranean Region. Hosting many Roman structures that have survived to the present day, Side is one of the indispensables of the summer months in the region with its sea, sand and sun tourism.
