Still, the fact remains that Side is one of the best bases for visiting the famous archeological sites of Perge and Aspendos. And despite all that tackiness, the ruins at Side itself are extraordinarily impressive, well worth having to chant back "guten morgen" to 20 or so determined salesmen before lunch.
Let's start with a look at what Side has to offer. The original settlement seems to have been the work of Aeolians from Greece who arrived here in c. 600 B.C. and who appear to have made a living from piracy and the slave trade. In due course it was subsumed into the Roman Empire as part of Pamphylia and appears to have settled down as a trading center with a population of around 60,000 people. This flourished into the Byzantine period, only to fall on hard times when the Arabs came calling in the seventh century. For long centuries nothing much seems to have happened in Side; then in the late 19th century fresh blood sailed in from Crete, and things started to look up again. In the early 20th century, most residents still made their living from the sea. It was only in the 1980s that mass tourism brought about the drastic changes evident today.
Most independent travelers arrive in Side via the small town of Manavgat, where they change from a big bus to a smaller one that will ferry them into Side's own diminutive otogar (bus station). The strange thing about this is that from the otogar you get no sense at all of what Side has become, the "village" being completely hidden from sight. In winter, you're broken in gently as you stroll along the evocative remains of a Roman street. In summer, though, a tractor and trailer are laid on to ferry visitors to the center, a thoroughly Mickey Mouse way of arriving.
Say you choose to walk though. You will come almost at once to a newly restored nymphaeum, one of the giant marble fountains so beloved of the Romans, which faces along the ancient street that led to the theater. This is one of the more evocative parts of Side, and it's well worth lingering a bit to explore, if only because so few others bother to do so. Recent excavations have uncovered the remains of shops on either side of the road, a reminder that the pushy commerce of the modern village is unlikely to be anything new.
As you enter Side proper, you pass the scant remains of the old agora (marketplace), a place where slaves were once sold, before coming to the most impressive site of all, the huge, ancient theater which looms large on the left-hand side of the road. Built in the second century, almost certainly over the foundations of an earlier theater, it could have probably seated up to 15,000 people at a time, watching gladiators in combat with wild animals. Unlike so many Anatolian theaters, the one in Side is free-standing, rather than cut into a hillside -- something which necessitated the building of huge retaining walls. It serves as the venue for a two-week festival of classical music and ballet every September.
Opposite the theater, Side's museum is housed inside a fifth-century Roman bathhouse and contains an impressive collection of marble statues and sarcophagi as well as an inscription in Sidetan, the ancient language spoken here, in which the word "side" appears to have meant "pomegranate." Unfortunately, unsightly tourism development separates lovers of all things ancient from the village's other main sites, which are the twin temples of Apollo and Athena at the far end of the promontory that formed the heart of the ancient settlement. Some of the Corinthian columns from the Temple of Athena have been re-erected and make a wonderfully romantic backdrop for photographs, reminiscent in some ways of Cape Sounion in Greece.
Of course, you can always do it the easy way and sign up for a tour, but if you want to visit Aspendos under your own steam you will need to backtrack to Manavgat, a pleasant enough small town which grew up on the banks of the Manavgat River and is well known for its tasty bananas. With time on your hands you can take a boat ride upriver to picnic beside a not especially inspiring waterfall. Otherwise look for a bus heading towards Antalya and ask to be dropped off at Serik, the Aspendos turnoff, four kilometers from the ruins.
Aspendos is best known for its enormous Roman theater, which dates back to the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180) and can seat 20,000 spectators. Although it is often touted as the best-preserved Roman theater in the world, it has, in fact, been restored, first in the 13th century and then again in the 1930s, when Atatürk was so impressed with it that he decided that it should be brought back to life again. Today it serves as the main venue for the Aspendos Opera and Ballet Festival every June/July.
Aspendos' early history is a sorry tale of squabbles between the Persians, the Athenians, the Spartans, the Macedonians and the Seleucids for possession of it. Only under the Roman Empire did it really start to prosper on the proceeds of selling salt from a nearby lake. It was then that the theater was built, along with many of the overgrown buildings on the hilltop acropolis. In comparison with the theater, most of the other ruins at Aspendos pale into insignificance. The one exception is a lengthy stretch of aqueduct that still survives from the second century A.D. and which would have brought water down from the Taurus Mountains to the city.
After you're finished at Aspendos, you should continue west along the coast road to Antalya, getting out at Aksu, which is two kilometers south of the ruins of Perge. Like Aspendos, Perge flourished under the Romans, and it was during their ascendancy that it acquired its stadium which appears to have been one of the largest ever built, with seating for 12,000 sports fans. Excavations have uncovered much of the town center, including an impressive colonnaded street with tiny reliefs carved onto the tops of the columns. A huge number of marble statues have been discovered at Perge, and the best of them are on display in Antalya's fine museum.
Returning to Side, you will find no shortage of nightlife and restaurants. It pays to be a bit careful when ordering, especially when it comes to fish, since past customers have sometimes found themselves landed with unexpectedly large bills. If you stick with the tried and tested restaurants such as the Aphrodite, Moonlight and Soundwaves, you shouldn't go far wrong.
HOW TO GET THERE:
Beach House Hotel. Tel: 0(242) 753 1607
Hotel Lale Park. Tel: 0(242) 753 1131
Side Hotel. Tel: 0(242) 753 3824
Yükser Pansiyon. Tel: 0(242) 753 2010
WHERE TO STAY: There are frequent buses from Antalya and Alanya to Side via Manavgat. The same bus services will take you to within walking distance of Perge and Aspendos.
