Memories of ancient Aspendos (1 of 2)

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Saturday 15 November, 2014 by Uncle Spike

On the occasional walkabout (or driveabout) away from the farm, one of our passions is to visit some of the great historical and archaeological sites our country has to offer.

Turkey is like one huge outdoor museum, with various civilisations having left their indelible mark for all to see and share, some ‘thousands’ of years later. One such site is Aspendos.

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Situated in the province of Antalya, on our southern Mediterranean coast, between the city of Antalya to the east, and west of Manavgat, Aspendos is one of the better ancient cities in my opinion.

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Aspendos was an ancient city in Pamphylia, Asia Minor. The wide range of its coinage throughout the ancient world indicates that, in the 5th century BC, Aspendos had become the most important city in Pamphylia.

Aspendos is known for having the best-preserved theatre of antiquity. With a diameter of 96 metres (315 ft), the theatre provided seating for 7,000.[

Wikipedia

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The scale of this place is quite breathtaking, and the fact that it is less visited than places like Efes (Ephesus) or Hieropolis (at Pammukkale) make it all the more attractive, especially in the shoulder seasons.

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It’s one of those sites where you just want to sit down for an hour, and take it all in – you know, savour the atmosphere, and try to imagine how it was 2000 years ago.

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They don’t make places like this any more, that’s for sure. And didn’t see much in the way of steel-reinforced C20 grade concrete either! 

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The site is BIG, and it took a fair while to wander around. Unlike some of the other sites, Aspendos is relatively untouched, so you can wander across the hillside on small goat tracks 🙂

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