Today we visited the ancient Roman city of Perge,
located along the coast near Antalya. Perge has some of Turkey’s most beautiful Hellenistic and
Roman ruins. Originally settled by the Hittites around 1500 BC, it is one of
the oldest cities in Turkey. In 334 BC, it came under the Hellenistic control
of Alexander the Great. Today you can
see the remains of the city walls and the two city towers that were built
during this period.
It wasn’t until the Roman Empire conquered Perge in 188 BC that
the city prospered and became one of the richest cities of the Pamphylia Region
(located in the southern part of Asia Minor).
The city was also a very important place for Christianity and in 46 CE,
it was visited by the Apostle Paul, who preached his first sermon there and was
also accompanied by Barnabas.
By the 5th-6th centuries CE, the city
was a major center of Byzantine Christianity.
However, in the later years of the Byzantine empire, the city was subjected
to a number of attacks by Arabs and a devastating earthquake in the 8th
century, thus leading to the abandonment of the city. Below is a description of
some of the many ruins that we saw as we walked through this ancient city.
Tour of the City
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| Stadium |
The ruins of a 2
nd century CE
stadium are
located on the eastern slope of the Acropolis hill on the west side of the city.
U-shaped in design, it was 750’ by 98’ and
held about 12,000 people.
It was the
center for entertainment in the city, hosting athletic events, boxing,
gladiator fights, and festivals.
While
not much is left of the stadium, there are fragments of seats and arches on the
north-eastern section.
When you first enter Perge, you pass through two massive
gates at the northern edge of the city.
The first is the Roman Gates, consisting of two gates with a
courtyard between them. These were built
during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus in the 2nd century CE as part of the city’s
fortifications. It is protected by high
towers on both sides of the gate; and the inner gate, also built during
Severus’ reign, leads from the courtyard into the city itself.
Perhaps the most iconic symbol of the city is the second of
these massive gates – the Hellenistic Gate built in the 2nd
Century BCE during the Hellenistic period.
It consists of two towers built of hewn stones that lead into a
horseshoe-shaped courtyard built by Planica Magna. Marble blocks cover the walls with a
two-story colonnade. In the niches
between the columns of the second story were statues of Perge’s legendary
founders, Mopsos and Calchas. The lower
level housed statues of Greek gods, namely Hermes, Aphrodite, and Pan. Today most of these statues are located in
the Antalya Museum.
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| Roman Gates |
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| Hellenistic Gate |
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| Courtyard of the Hellenistic Gate |
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| Hadrian's Arch |
Hadrian's Arch was a triumphal arch erected in 130 CE in honor of the Roman emperor Hadrian, whovisited Perge during his reign. It was considered a symbol of Roman power and was used as another grand entrance to the city. The arch featured three gateways and intricate carvings depicting mythological figures and scenes from Roman victories. It was located at the southern edge of the Hellenistic Gate courtyard and marked the beginning of the colonnaded street.
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| Southern Basilica |
In the Southern part of the city are the remains of a three-nave basilica, dating back to the 5
th or 6
thcentury CE. The
basilica was used as both a political venue and a court. The eastern part of the building is the best
preserved.
The Roman baths are located on the west side of the
Hellenistic gate. A monumental gate
leads to these baths that are, today, considered the best-preserved Roman baths
in Turkey. They consist of a series of
rooms with windows, a frigidarium or cold water room with a swimming pool, a
tepidarium or room with warm water, and the caldarium, the hot water room. Still visible are the thin marble slabs, that
once lined the brick walls and the exposed heating system – a floor supported
on brick pillars and the air heated in the boiler room that circulated
underneath.
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| Arch Leading into Roman Baths |
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| Water Fountain Area in front of Baths |
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| Large Swimming Pool in Baths |
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| Underground Heating System of Baths |
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| Layout of Roman Baths |
On the side of the street opposite the Roman Baths was the 4th
century CE Agora, a large square area that was surrounded by columns and
was the commercial and political center of the city. Each side measured 213” and was lined with
shops. A fountain once stood in the
center and there is evidence of a public latrine on one side of the square.
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| Agora |
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| Ridged Column in Agora |
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| Drainage System in Agora |
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| Ruins of Fountain in Agora |
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Old Game Carved in Stone that
was Played in the Agora |
The marble colonnaded street ran down the center of
the city from south to north. At the far southern end of the street is the Fountain
of Hadrian. This fountain is
supported by the southern slope of the Acropolis hill and marks the beginning
of a canal that ran down the center of the colonnaded street that had carried
water to various parts of the city.
Built in a U-shaped form, the two-story building served as a gateway to
the acropolis. There were two entrances
to the building and the façade between them contain a statue of Kaystros (the
God of the River). It once contained a
statue of Hadrian, but that has since been moved to the Antalya Museum. And in 1924, after 1800 years and extensive
renovations, water is again flowing through the fountain.
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| Colonnaded Road |
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| Fountain of Hadrian |
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| Perge's Official Greater |
As dinner was on our own tonight, we decided
to do a little sightseeing in the Old Town of Antalya before getting to the
restaurant. The area where our hotel is
located is zoned for pedestrians, but a few cars are allowed in. It seemed we were forever dodging cars/taxis,
motorcycles and bicycles! We first
walked a short distance to the Sehzade Korkt Mosque. It was originally built in the 2nd
century as a Roman temple. In the 5th
or 6th century CE (Byzantine Period) it was converted into a church
that was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
During the 7th century CE, it was destroyed by invading Arabs
and then converted into a mosque as a symbol of conquest during the Seljuk
Period (a Sunni Muslim dynasty during the 9th and 10th
centuries). This was when its original
minaret was added (today that landmark which towers over Antalya is known as
the Broken Minaret). In 1361 it was
again converted back into a church by the King of Cyprus, but with the Ottoman
Period it was again converted back into a mosque. (It certainly has had a
chaotic history!)
In 1896, fire severely damaged the mosque and destroyed the
wooden cone of the minaret, and the mosque was deemed unusable. In 1974 it underwent a serious restoration,
but it wasn’t until 2017 that work began to make the mosque ready for
worship. In 2019, a new wooden cone was
attached to the minaret, and finally in 2022, after 126 years, it was reopened
for worship.
In the courtyard of the mosque is an open-air museum with
artifacts that reflect Antalya’s history from the Ancient Age through the
Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman Periods.
Most of what we saw were just stone blocks.
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Stones from the 3rd Century
Roman Temple |
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| Inside the Mosqe |
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| Stones from the Roman Era |
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| Outside the Mosque |
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| Broken Minaret |
We then walked down to the waterfront where we saw the
Hidirhk Tower. Located on the
southwest corner of the city walls, it was built in the 1st or 2nd
century CE by the Roman Emperor Hadrian.
It was thought to have been a monumental tomb, but its structure also
indicates that it could have been used for defensive purposes during the
Byzantine era. During the Ottoman Period
it was a military warehouse. And
throughout its history, it was used as a watchtower for ships sailing through
the Gulf of Antalya.
We then had dinner at the Sauvignon Restaurant located on
the waterfront right next to the Hidirhk Tower.
We also had a nice view of the old walls and the little bay inlet that
forms the boundary of the town and the sea.
The restaurant was very nice and the wine exceptional – with a name like
Sauvignon how could you go wrong. Bill
had what he called some of the best calamari and then a seafood spaghetti while
I had shrimp tortellini. A nice way to
end our stay in Antalya.
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| Hidirhk Tower |
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What Better Wine than Sauvignon Blanc
to have at the Sauvignon Restaurant |
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| Part of the Old City Walls |
