Alanya to Antalya: Aspendos the Best Preserved Ancient Theatre, Perge the Pamphylian City, Termessos the Unconquered Taurus Fortress, and the Antalya Province Ancient Heritage
The Alanya to Antalya ancient heritage route covers Aspendos as the best preserved ancient theatre in the world, Perge as the most completely excavated Pamphylian city, Termessos the mountain fortress that Alexander the Great declined to attack, and the complete ancient heritage circuit of the Antalya province.
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Aspendos Theatre: The World Best Preserved Ancient Theatre
The Aspendos Roman theatre built in 155 AD by the architect Zenon and presented to the city by the twin brothers Curtius Crispinus and Curtius Auspicatus is the best preserved ancient theatre in the world with the complete two-story stage building (scaenae frons) standing to its original full height of 28 meters - the only surviving ancient theatre where the complete stage building can be seen. The Aspendos stage building with the carved relief panels, the royal box above the stage entrance, and the ornamental window series in the upper story is the single most impressive surviving element of any ancient theatre and the building that most completely allows the visualization of how the ancient theatrical performance appeared to its original audience.
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Aspendos Aqueduct: The Roman Water Engineering
The Aspendos Roman aqueduct system 3 kilometers from the theatre, with the surviving arcaded aqueduct bridge and the inverted siphon pressure towers, is the most clearly preserved single example of the Roman inverted siphon water delivery technology in Turkey. The aqueduct carried water 15 kilometers from the Taurus mountains to the Aspendos acropolis through the valley-crossing pressure system that uses the mathematical principle of communicating vessels to push the water uphill on the far side of the valley. The Aspendos aqueduct is the most instructive single Roman engineering monument in the Antalya province.
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Perge: The Most Excavated Pamphylian City
Perge, 15 kilometers east of Antalya, was the most important single Pamphylian Greek city and the best excavated of the Anatolian ancient cities with the 6,000-capacity stadium (the most completely preserved ancient stadium in Turkey after Aphrodisias), the colonnaded main street with the central water channel, the Roman bath complex, and the acropolis with the original Hellenistic tower gate. The Antalya Museum houses the finest Perge sculpture collection - the portrait statues of the 2nd century AD Perge benefactor Plancia Magna and the Hadrian-period frieze cycle - in the most important single ancient Anatolian sculpture collection in the world after the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.
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Termessos: The Unconquered Fortress
Termessos, the Pisidian city at 1,050 meters in the Taurus mountains 30 kilometers northwest of Antalya, is the ancient city that Alexander the Great chose not to attack in 333 BC because the mountain approach was too narrow and too well defended for his army to make an assault - the only city in the region that Alexander passed without besieging. The Termessos ruins include the Hellenistic city wall, the theatre overlooking the gorge, the gymnasium, and the most atmospheric single necropolis in Turkey where the overturned sarcophagi and the collapsed tomb towers lie exactly as the Byzantine earthquake left them in the most completely unrestored single ancient site in the Antalya province.
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Antalya Kaleici: The Old City Harbor Quarter
The Kaleici (Inner Fortress) old city quarter of Antalya, the most intact single Ottoman-period harbor town on the Turkish Mediterranean coast with the Roman harbor walls, the Hadrian Gate triumphal arch, the Hidirlık Tower Roman lighthouse, and the Ottoman period mosque conversions from the Byzantine churches, is the essential companion to the Aspendos, Perge, and Termessos ancient site visits for the visitor based in Alanya for the day trip to Antalya. The Kaleici boutique hotels in the restored Ottoman houses are the most atmospherically distinctive single overnight accommodation option in the Antalya province.
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Antalya Museum: The Premier Ancient Collection
The Antalya Museum on the Konyaalti coast road, the most important single regional archaeological museum in Turkey, houses the Perge portrait sculpture hall with the 2nd century AD marble statues, the Roman sarcophagi gallery with the Heracles and the Gigantomachy sarcophagi, the mosaic hall from the Antalya region villas, and the prehistoric and Bronze Age hall from the Karain Cave (the oldest continuously occupied cave site in Turkey, 400,000 years of human habitation). A visit to Alanya without the Antalya Museum day trip misses the most important single physical context for the ancient sites visible at Perge, Aspendos, and Side.
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More in Alanya
Alanya History: The Seljuk Conquest and Alaeddin Keykubad, the Alanya Shipyard, the Byzantine Kalonoros, the Ottoman Incorporation, and the Banana Agriculture of the Sheltered Microclimate
Alanya Practical: Antalya Airport Transfer, Bus and Shuttle Connections, the Beach Choice, Accommodation from Budget to All-Inclusive, the Best Season, and the Departure Summary
Alanya Essential: The Seljuk Red Tower, the Fortress on the Promontory, Cleopatra Beach, Damlatas Cave, the Turkish Riviera Resort Character, and the Dim Cave Day Trip
Eastern Riviera Circuit: Side the Apollo Temple on the Beach, the Manavgat Waterfall, the Side Roman Ruins, the Seleucia Pieria Ancient City, and the Full Eastern Riviera Day Trip
Alanya Underwater: The Diving Scene, the Blue Cave, the Phosphorescent Cave, the Pirate Cave Boat Tour, Underwater Archaeology, and the Eastern Mediterranean Dive Sites
