Temple of Apollo

When I first visited Side in 1982, it was a small sleepy Turkish fishing village with a small harbour and some tourist shops. The past 20 years Side has known a startling transformation. Tourism is now big business in Side and in the summer season this holiday resort and the adjacent luxury hotels are filled with package tourists that come to Side for the long wide sandy beaches next to the remnants of antiquity. However, Side retains its charm and it is unique in Turkey as a living open-air museum in a spectacular setting.

The name Side probably means pomegranate in some ancient Anatolian language. The site was colonized by Aeolians, a Greek people, at about 600 BC. With a population of 60,000, it was the largest, richest port in Pamphylia. When Alexander the Great captured the city in 333 BC its people spoke a language unknown to the invaders and it is still not deciphered. Initially, Side's wealth was based on slave trade and piracy, which flourished under the Greeks. These practices were stopped when the city came under Roman control. Under the Byzantines, Side was important enough to have its own bishop. In the 7th century AD Arab raids diminished the town which was finally abandoned after earthquakes in 1150. In the 19th century Muslims from Crete settled in Side.

TEMPLE OF APOLLON

Inscriptions,coins and other evidence,suggest that the two almost identical structures were temples to apollon and athena,protectors of the port and shipping.They can be dated to the latter part of the 2nd century ad.Both were of corinthian type with surroun ding columns (peripteral),six in front and back,and eleven on the sides.Both had a front chamber (pronaos)and a main chamber. They are the largest temples found in side,and pressumably its most imposing ones,commanding the site at the harbour.The slinghtly smaller southern temple,whose ruins have been preserved,was decorated with a frieze of medusa heads. In later centuries when the temples had been partially destroyed,the outer walls of a vast byzantine basilica were constructed pround them on two sides.

SЭDE

The lovely sea-side city of Side ("the pomegranate that symbolizes the fruitfulness") was first settled in the 7^th century B.C. as a colony of the West Anatolian city of Kyme. In the 6^th century B.C. it came under the control of Lydian kings until their defeat by the Persians. In 334 B.C. the city surrendered to Alexander the Great, but after his death it was ruled by the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucid kings of Syria. After the defeat of the Seleucids by the Romans, the city was briefly given to Pergamon before gaining its independence.

The theatre, built in the 2^nd century A.D., is in the Roman style. Built on barrel-vaulted substructures and supported only by vaults, arches and columns, it is completely free standing, the only such example in Anatolia.

The auditorium is divided into a lower and upper cavea each with 29 rows of seats; however, only 22 rows of the upper seats remain. The lower cavea is divided by 12 sets of stairs and the upper by 25 rows of stairs. The curve of the auditorium significantly exceeds a semicircle. The orchestra is semicircular and is surrounded by a water channel. The high parapet separating the orchestra from the auditorium enabled the orchestra to be filled with water in order to reenact navel battles as entertainment. The stage building, which was originally 3 stories high and with a richly decorated faзade or scaenae frons, is in the process of being excavated and rebuilt. The theatre was later converted into an open-air church in the 5^th or 6^th century A.D.

SIVAS

DIVRIGI ULU CAMII

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29