Once the most important port city of Pamphylia, Side is located on a peninsula about 350-400 meters wide, 80 kilometers east of Antalya and 7 kilometers southwest of Manavgat. Side became a settlement in the 7th century BC. By the 6th century BC, it had come under the dominion of the Lydian Kingdom along with the rest of Pamphylia, and following the fall of the Lydian Kingdom in 547/546 BC, it fell under Persian control.
During this period, the city maintained a degree of independence, minting its own coins. When Alexander the Great campaigned in Anatolia in 334 BC, Side opened its gates to the Macedonian king without resistance and later became one of the major minting centers established by Alexander. After Alexander’s death, Side changed hands frequently among the Hellenistic period kingdoms, falling under the control of the Ptolemies in the 3rd century BC, and the Seleucids between 215-189 BC. After the Seleucids were defeated in war against the Romans, Side was given to the Kingdom of Pergamon following the Peace of Apameia in 188 BC.
However, Side soon regained its independence and entered one of its most prosperous eras. The fact that Antiochus VII, who later ascended the Syrian throne in 138 BC and was nicknamed “Sidetes”, was sent to Side for his education during his youth, indicates the city’s importance as a cultural center in the Eastern Mediterranean. This golden age did not last long. By the 1st century BC, piracy starting in the mountainous regions of Pisidia and Cilicia had spread to Pamphylia, and Side was unable to fend off the pirates, forcing the Sidetians to open their harbors and markets to them. Eventually, in 78 BC, Roman Consul Publius Servilius cleaned the area of pirates, and Side, like other cities in Pamphylia, was incorporated into the Roman Empire.
After 25 BC, Augustus turned the Pamphylia region into a province directly governed by a Roman official. From then on, Side was a city within a Roman province. Side experienced another flourishing period during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD but appeared as a poor Christian city by the 4th century. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the city had its third and final golden age, becoming the capital of the Eastern Pamphylia Metropolis. By the 9th and 10th centuries, weakened by Arab raids, the city was referred to as a “pirate’s nest” by Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus (913-959) in his work “De Thematibus”. The Arab geographer Idrisi around 1150 referred to Side as “Burned Antalya,” noting that its people had been resettled two days’ distance away in “New Antalya.”
Known as a trade and port city, the ruins of Ancient Side were settled by Greek immigrants in the early 20th century who founded Selimiye Village. Located on a peninsula, like other Pamphylian cities, Side features a monumental street starting from the city’s main gate. The main street, beginning at the “Great Gate” in the northeast, runs almost in a straight line across the peninsula, ending near the temples in a large square, except for a curve in front of the Theater. The city’s second major street stretches south from the “Great Gate”. Both streets are colonnaded with Corinthian columns, flanked by porticoes, and lined with shops behind them.
Source: Side, From Yesterday to Today Antalya Volume II, Antalya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism (2012)