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Side, ancient Pamphylia's largest port, is situated on a small peninsula extending north-south into the sea.
Strabo
and Arrianos both record that Side was settled from Kyme, city in
Aeolia, a region of western Anatolia. Most probably, this colonization
occurred in the seventh century B.C. According to Arrianos, when
settlers from Kyme came to Side, they could not understand the dialect.
After a short while, the influence of this indigenous tongue was so
great that the newcomers forgot their native Greek and started using
the language of Side. Excavations have revealed several inscriptions
written in this language. The inscriptions, dating from the third and
second centuries B.C., remain undeciphered, but testify that the local
language was still use several centuries after colonization. Another
object found in Side excavations, a basalt column base from the seventh
century B.C. and attributable to the Neo Hittites, provides other
evidence of the site's early history. The word "side" is Anatolian in
origin and means pomegranate.
Next
to no information exists concerning Side under Lydian and Persian
sovereignty. Nevertheless, the fact that Side minted its own coins
during the fifth century B.C. while under Persian dominion, shows that
it still possessed a great measure of independence.
In 333 A.D., despite its strong land and sea walls, Side surrendered to Alexander the Great without a fight.
For
a long period following the death of Alexander, Side came under the
dominion of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires, and in 190 B.C.
witnessed a great naval battle. This encounter took place between the
fleet of Rhodes, acting with the support of Rome and Pergamum, and the
fleet of Antiochos III, the king of Syria, under the command of the
famous Carthaginian Hannibal. Side took the side of Hannibal, but the
Rhodian forces carried the day.
Aspendos,
located beside the river Eurymedon (Köprüçay), is renowned throughout
the world for its magnificent ancient amphitheatre.
According
to Greek legend, the city was founded by Argive colonists who, under
the leadership of the hero Mopsos, came to Pamphylia after the Trojan
War. Aspendos was one of the first cities in the region to strike
coinage under its own name. On these silver staters dated to the fifth
and fourth century B.C., however, the name of the city is written es
Estwediiys in the local script. A late eighth century B.C. bilingual
inscription carved in both Hittite hieroglyphs and the Phoenician
alphabet discovered in the 1947 excavation of Karatepe near Adana,
states that Asitawada, the king of Danunum (Adana), founded a city
called Azitawadda, a derivation of his own name, and that he was a
member of the Muksas, or Mopsus, dynasty. The striking similarity
between the names "Estwediiys" and "azitawaddi" suggests the
possibility that Aspendos was the city this king founded.
Aspendos
did not play an important role in antiquity as a political force. Its
political history during the colonization period corresponded to the
currents of the Pamphylian region. Within this trend, after the
colonial period, it remained for a time under Lycian hegemony. In 546
B.C. it came under Persian domination. The face that the city continued
to mint coins in its own name, however, indicates that it had a great
deal of freedom even under the Persians
This
cultural and natural excursion visits the beautiful waterfall at
Kurşunlu, visit a shoppingcentre, the well preserved ampitheatre
in Aspendos, the temple of Apollo and the historical town of Side
INCLUDING: Lunch, Air-Conditioned bus, guide and with full insurance
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