Sidé

History

Its history is rather badly known until the time of the empire Achéménide of which it forms part. It is subjected in 334 av . J. - C. to Alexandre Large the, then is integrated into the kingdom of the Séleucides. It is in IIe front century. J. - C. a den of pirates which thrives in spite of the competition of the port of Antalya, built by the king of Pergame Attale II. Catch by Pumped in 67 av . J. - C., the city declines gradually with the Roman Empire. A shy person rectification under the Byzantine in Ve and VIe centuries does not prevent the abandonment of the city during the invasions and raids Arab in VIIe century.

Archeology

The site

The site is excavated archaeologically for the first time in 1880, then in a systematic way by the university of Istanbul between 1947 and 1966. Located on a headland giving on the sea to north, the west and the south, the city was protected in the east by an enclosure, of IIe century, regular and defended by turns on three floors, like two strengthened doors. The main street, on the basis of a door located at the North-East, joined a Agora, seat of many shops on its sides, approximately 95 X 90 m, surrounded in the beginning of a unit of colonnades. Just in north is the current local museum on the site of old thermal baths of Ve century.

The theater

In the west, being next to the agora, draw up the elements preserved still well of a theater which undoubtedly goes up in the middle of IIe century, surrounded by massive arcades. This theater, designed in particular for the Circus games, had all around the orchestrated (the track), a wall of 2,5 meters in order to protect the spectators. It undergoes a curious transformation in Ve or Life century since it was transformed into church. In the south-east of the theater existed a rectangular market (88,50 X 69,20 m) surrounded, on 7 m of depth, of an ionic colonnade. In the east of this market, near the ramparts, rises a small basilica dating from the Byzantine time and a baptistry (Ve-Life century).

Two temples

More in the west, near the port and of the former city at the time Roman, while reaching it by streets bordered of Corinthian colonnades (partially preserved), are the vestiges of a temple (16,37 X 29,50 m) peripteral (6 columns out of 11) of Apollon (IIe century), of which there remain only the bases of the columns and who dominates the sea from a superb point of view. The temple of Athéna, so peripteral, is larger to him (17,65 X 35 m) and probably dates from the same time.

The aqueduct

The city was fed out of water at the time Roman by a aqueduct arriving by the North-East and which is still well preserved.

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