ANTALYA TO ALANYA

This vvas a squarc mcasuring some 75 meters on a side, vvith its inner periphery lined vvith shops opening on to porticoes. The agora vvas built in the fourth century A.D., probably at the same time as the outer vvalls and gatevvay. At ıhe center of the square there are the remains of a circular temple vvith a diameter of 13.5 meters, originally covered by a dome carried on a circlet of sixteen marble columns. The temple vvas probably dedicated to Hermes, the patron deity of merehants.
About 300 meters north of the Hellenistic gate the main north-south avenue is erossed by another coionnaded street. At the junction we see a restored arehvvay of the second century A.D. that stood astride the east-vvest street. An inseription records that the arch vvas dedicated to Artemis Pergaea by tvvo citizens of Perge, Dimitrius and Apollonius, the first being demiourgos and the second gymnasiarch, another high post in the civic hierarchy.
The tvvo streets divided the city into four unequal quarters, the tvvo to the south being much larger than the other pair, vvhich vvere hemmed in under the slope of the aeropolis. Near the cen¬ter of the southvvestern quarter there are the ruins of a large basilica from the fıfth century A.D., believed to have been the episcopal church of Byzantine Perge. Just above the east-vvest street in the northvvestern corner are the remains of a square building measuring some 76 meters on a side, vvith the vvell-pre-served vvall overlooking the street preserving several of its vvin-dovvs. An inseription records that this vvas a palaestra dedicated to the emperor Claudius (r. 41-54) by a citizen named C. Julius Cornutus.
At the vvest end of the eross street vve see the ruins of a Roman bath beside the vvest gate. The bath, vvhich dates from the third century A.D., consists of a congeries of rooms opening off a coionnaded courtyard. The necropolis vvas outside the vvest gate, vvhere in 1946Turkish archaeologists unearthed a number of elaborately decorated tombs. Some of the sareophagi found


in ihese tombs are no\v on exhibit in the Antalya nıuseum. At the upper end of the main avenue vve come to the nymphaeum that supplied vvater to the channel in the center of the colonnaded \vay.The vvater flovved from a large pool dominated by the statue of a river god. This \vas a personification of the river Cestrus, knovvn in Turkish as the Aksu Çayı. The nymphaeum has been dated to the second century A.D.
A path leads up from the nymphaeum to the summit of the acropolis hill.The summit vvas inhabited in the period of the first settlement of Perge. it vvas then abandoned until the early By/aniine period, vvhen the tovvnspepple apparcntly took refuge there from marauders on the plain belovv. The only stnıctures on the summit date from the Byzantine era, the most notable being a large vaulted cistern.
Turkish archaeologists have made excavations on tvvo hills about a kilometer south of the main site in search of the elusive temple of Artemis Pergaea. The most promising of these tvvo siles is on the lovv hill callcd İyilik Belen, some 500 meters to the east of the road at a point 500 meters south of the theater. Archaeologists excavated the hill in 1945 and discovered the foundations of a small Doric prostyle temple, the first one to be found at Perge. This can hardly be the famous temple of Artemis Pergaea, vvhich vvould have been much larger, and vvhich is shovvn on coins as an lonic edifice. At the same time the archae¬ologists also found some architectural fragments in the lonic style, and this has encouraged them to continue their excavations on the hill.
We novv return to Highvvay 400 and continue driving eastvvard through the Pamphylian plain. As vve do so vve see far off to our left the acropolis hill of ancienl Sillyum, vvhich vve approach by turning off the highvvay onto a signposted road some fifteen kilo-meters from the Perge turnoff. After a drive of about eight kilo-meters vve come to the village of Asarköy, from vvhere a path leads up to the ancient city, vvhose main site is on a flat-topped hill 210 meters above sea level.



The earliest reference to Sillyum is by the Pseudo-Scylax in thc fourtlı century B.c, but there is reason to believc that by then it vvas already of some antiquity. Archaeologists have recently discovered a statue base inscribed vvith the name of Mopsus, indicating that this legendary seer vvas regarded as the founder of Sillyum, another one of the places first settled after the Trojan War by the "mixed multitudes."
Sillyum first appears in history in 333 B.c, vvhen it vvas unsuccessfully besieged by Alexander just after his capture of the neighboring cities of Aspendus and Side. Arrian describes the incident, referring to the city as Syllium:
Alexander lefl a party of men to occupy Side and then proceeded to Syllium, a fortified tovvn garrisoned by mercenaries and native troops. He was unable, hovvever, to take this place by assault, vvithout regular siege operations, and this fact, coupled \vith a report vvhich he had received dur-ing his march. determined him to return to Aspendus.
Climbing upvvards from the village, vve pass the sparse remains of the stadium. This structure vvas about 180 meters long, vvith the seats on the vvest side resting on a long vaulted gallery, vvhile on the east side they vvere built against the natura! slope of the ground.
We then come to the lovver gate, vvhich belongs to a later period of fortification vvhen the tovvnspeople moved dovvn from the acropolis to be closer to their farms on the plain belovv. This gate resembles the main entryvvay at Perge but on a smaller scale, comprising a horseshoe-shaped inner court vvith a tovver on either side. A short distance to the left of the gate vve see the remains of a gymnasium, vvhich vvas later converted to the epis-copal palace of the bishop vvhose see included both Sillyum and Perge,
The approach to the upper city vvas on the vvest side of the plateau, vvhere the slope is less precipitous, though stili too steep for a direct ascent. İt vvas thus necessary to build an elab-

DoorJamb at Sillyum with Inscriplion in Pamphylian




Vtew ojIhe Acropoi
orate ramp that ascended t o the upper gate from both the north and the south, a structure dating from the Hellenistic period. A short stretch of the upper end of the northern ramp is preserved along vvith its stone pavement, vvhile a much longer section of the southern ramp survives in its lovver part. The southern ramp is extremely impressive, vvith a roadvvay 5.2 meters vvide, its outer retaining vvall standing to a height of nine or ten courses, supported at intervals by massive buttresses.The vvall also con-tains a number of large vvindovvs, indicating that the ramp vvas probably roofed to give protection to part of the populace dur-ing times of siege. Above the ramp vve see tvvo great bastions on the southvvestern corner of the plateau, part of the Heilenistic defense vvorks of the upper city.
Belovv the ramp vve see part of the necropolis of Sillyum, vvhose tombs are thus described by George Bean: "The tombs are simple rectangular graves sunk into the surfaces of large masses of fallen rock, vvith steps leading up; they vvere closed vvith separate lids, but none of these novv remain. in many cases holes may be seen for the pouring of libations to the dead." The burials in the necropolis range in date from the third century B.c. to the sixth century A.D., vvith most of the extant graves dating from the Roman imperial period.
Southvvesl of the necropolis vve see the only remaining tovver of the late fortification vvall, a handsome and vvel I-preserved structure in tvvo slories, lacking only its roof. The northern door on the ground floor has a horizontal lintel, vvhile the southern one is archcd; from the upper story, doors on the east and vvest sides led to the ramparts.There are narrovv vvindovvs halfvvay up on the north and south vvalls, vvhile near the top there are smaller openings on ali four sides.
Al the top of the ramp vve come to the upper gate, the main entrance to the acropolis. Most of the extant buildings in the upper city are in the southvvestern sector of the acropolis, to the right of the upper gate as one enters.



türe is a large Byzantine building—as yet unidentified—stand-ing to almost its full height, vvith arched vvindovvs high in its tvvo remaining vvalls. Just beyond that there are tvvo smailer and very attractive Hellenistic buildings. The larger of these, vvhich may have been a public hail, is vvell preserved in part; its vvest vvall is 55 meters long and stands to a height of more than 6 meters, pierced by ten vvindovvs of various sizes. The other building is much smailer, its most remarkable feature being its elaborately decorated door, vvhose right jamb is covered vvith a lengthy inscription dating from ca. 200 B.C. This is the principal evi-dence for the Pamphylian language, vvhich othervvise is knovvn only through a fevv short inscriptions and legends on coins. The inscription here runs to thirty-seven lines, interrupted by a scjuare hole that vvas aftervvards cut in the jamb. it is vvritten in the Greek language and expresses a local Greek dialect that remained in use until the first century A.D. As George Bean remarks of the inscription: "Individual vvords and phrases may be made out but the text as a vvhole is stili obscure."
South of these tvvo buildings vve see the upper four rovvs of the seats of a theater, the rest of vvhich vvas carried avvay vvhen the edgc of the cliff collapsed in a tremendous landslide in the spring of 1969. An odeion just to the east of the theater also dis-appeared in this landslide, in vvhose rubble belovv vve see half of a cistern.
East of the former sites of the theater and the odeion vve see the remains of an attractive complex of private houses, perched on the southern rim of the plateau. The vvalls of the houses are partly of masonry, partly hevvn from the natural rock; they stand on little terraces linked by rock-hevvn stairvvays.flanking narrovv lanes, looking like the mountain villages one stili sees today on the Greek islands of the Aegean.
At the eastern end of this coınplex there are the remains of a small Hellenistic temple measuring J1.3 by 7.62 meters. The east front of the temple originally had four columns. The south

vvall of the cclla has disappeared in a collapsc of the cliff, but the other three vvalls remain, standing in places up to eight courses of handsome masonry. Beyond the temple is a long underground cistern vvith gratings in the roadvvay.
At the vvestern end of the aeropolis vve see the remains of another small temple looking out över the rim of the plateau.
le temple is poorly preserved and has lost much of its original
rm in reconstructions. Beyond it at the northeastern corner of *:e aeropolis there are the remains of a tovver.
We novv vvalk back tovvard the upper gate along the northvvest im of the plateau, passing numerous cisterns and rock-hevvn house foundations. As vve approach the upper gate vve pass a domed building that may have been a mosque during the Seljuk
period,
We novv return to Highvvay 400 and continue driving eastvvard for another seventeen kilometers, before turning left on a road signposted for ancient Aspendus, vvhich is fi ve kilometers up the fertile valley of the Köprü Çayı, the river knovvn in antiquity as Seljuk Briçime över the Eurymedon


Ihe Eurymedon. A short vvay along the road \ve pass a hump-backed Seljuk bridge of the thirteenth century that stili spans the river. Just upstream from this vve see in the river bed the ruins of a Roman bridge of the second century A.D. Then as vve approach the site of Aspendus vve see tvvo outlying ruins of the ancient city. These have been identified as a Roman bath com-plex and a gymnasium, both dating from the second century A.D. Then finaily at the road's end vve come to the great theater of Aspendus, vvith the aeropolis hill of the ancient city rising up directly behind it.
Archaeological evidence has confirmed that the aeropolis hill vvas first occupied in the late Bronze Age, vvhich vvould be con-sistent vvith the tradition that Aspendus vvas another of the cities founded by the "mixed multitudes," in this case led by the seer Mopsus. Coins minted here from the early fifth century B.c. through the follovving century give the name of the city as Estvvediiys, vvhich has led some seholars to suggest that Aspendus vvas founded by the Hittite prince Azitavvadda, vvho deseribes himself as a descendant of Mukas, vvho may be the person the Greeks knevv as Mopsus. Local Greek tradition vvas unanimous in aseribing the foundation of the city to men of Argos in the Peloponnesus. This is consistent vvith the legend that the first cities in Pamphylia vvere founded by the "mixed multitudes," vvhich vvould have ineluded the Argivcs, the main force in Agamemnon's army at the siege of Troy.