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Antalya occupies the
site of ancient Termessos (30 km northwest of Antalya), an important Lycian city
(also known as Termessus) which was already
famed in the time of Croesus for its soothsayers. Due to its location at
a height of 1050 mt. at the Taurus Mountains, Termessos is one of most
interesting ancient cities to visit. You must have both time and a
courage for a short vertical hike in order to visit Termessos.
According to Strabo, an
ancient Greek Historian, the city was actually built by the Pisidians.
Alexander the Great surrounded Termessos in 333 BC but he abandoned the
conqurence because he probably knew that he would not be able to capture
the city due to its geographical situation. After Alexander
Termessos was an ally of Rome. It was granted independency by the
Romans in 71 BC.
 It is now difficult to find any traces
of ancient Termessos in the modern town after two earthquakes and the
subsequent rebuilding. The boundaries of the
Hellenistic and Roman towns are no doubt marked out by the almost
vertical rock face to the west, the Roman tombs on the east side of the
town and the Lycian necropolis to the south. The discovery of sarcophagi
near the edge of the modern town indicates the course of the ancient
coastline.
On the castle hill,
occupied in the Middle Ages by the Knights of St John and by the
Genoese, there are remains of much earlier buildings. The remains of
houses on the northwest side of the hill, with a number of cisterns and
water-supply channels suggest that there was an unwalled Lycian
settlement here, though in a later period the focus of urban
 life moved
down to the coastal plain. Of the ancient theater, which was located and
described by the French traveler Charles Texier before the 1856 earthquake, nothing can now be seen but the outline of the cavea
(auditorium).
Termessos lies in a natural park. Numeous animals and plants that
is in danger of extinction live here protected by the laws. The
park, with its wild nature and distinctive flora, has a magnificent
view.
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