About Turkey

    On the left of a nice highway, in the length of 80 kilometers leading to Antalya, an asphalt side-road of 4 kilometers will take you there. Though it doesn’t flow down from a high precipice the abundance of its water splashing on the rocks dazzles the eyes of the guests, and makes them thrill with excitement in front of a vast celestial background.
    Memorial Fountain
    As entering ‘Side’ it is the monumental structure on the left. It is 50 meters long and has a pool of water in front of it. Its width is ten meters. Water used to flow from three large depots, each had three marble-grooves. The front marble facade of the fountain was carved with designs illustrating the actions of punishment of those who had committed sins against gods, and different sexual relations.
    Basilica
    When we walk forward from the south gate of the City (beginning on the left of the theatre) we arrive at a plain. Here is the Agora of the City. A little ahead a colossal building faces you. It is one of the best-preserved constructions, being in the height of 16 meters. It has been built with a kind of brick called conglomerated brick.
    City Walls
    We see them before entering into the ruins of the City, Side. On the right there used to be an archaic Necropolis (a cemetery) and there is a huge stone-lid of a grave on the ground as seen in the picture. An eagle-shape is carved on it. When you look at over this stone towards the City of ‘Side’ you can discern the three-storied walls constructed in the Second Century B.C. belonging to the Hellenistic Period. They were 1.70 m wide and 10 meters high, one could climb up the walls by means of wooden-stairs. The small openings on the top of the walls weren’t the battlements but the windows which could be covered with screen-boards. The stone arches on the background on the left side of the walls belong to the later period. The whole length is 700 meters.
    Gate
    At the point where the road bends towards the theatre, you see the picture on the left. The asphalt road between the Nimfeum and the walls seems to get the old entrance-gate under it. Accordingly the new road of today is about one metre higher at least than the old one. On the right and left of the gate there were waiting-places and guest-rooms in the shape of a semicircular in the diameter of 50 meters. Today not many fragments of those ones at left are remained.
    Stadium
    It is on the plain in the north of the Theatre. Unfortunately the part seen in the picture has only remained today.
    Teatre
    This theatre which is the most majestic and monumental masterpiece of ‘Side’ has not been built at the foot of a hill as others but constructed on arches. As seen here the rows of seats for 25,000 spectators are in two parts, each with 30 flights of stairs upward. The stage-building consists of two main-floors and of two basements. There used to be a waterway (canal) around the semi-circular stage which is full of marble remains today. Later on, a rather high wall coated with red plaster was erected around this area, so that a kind of arena was formed for the fightings of gladiators and wild beasts.
    Aquaduct
    At about 75 km before you arrive at Manavgat on a narrow asphalt side-road, 4 kilometers ahead, you see a lot of ruined arches on the side of the road. There are ten of them, along which water was brought and in some places through underground tunnels to the City of Side in the past. The spring of the water was at a distance of 30 kilometers far from the place where the Manavgat Stream originates from.