Sightseeing in Antalya District

Kaleiçi, the old town inside Roman and Ottoman walls above the harbour, is where sightseeing in Antalya starts. Hadrian's Gate, three marble arches, was built for the emperor's visit in AD 130 and is still the main entrance. The lanes drop from it to the old Roman harbour, now a marina, past wooden Ottoman houses holding guesthouses and workshops. The Fluted Minaret, thirteenth-century Seljuk, is the city emblem; Hıdırlık Tower, second-century Roman, stands above Karaalioğlu Park.

Perge, 18 kilometres east near Aksu, keeps a colonnaded street with a water channel down the middle, Roman baths and a stadium. Aspendos, 45 kilometres east, has a second-century Roman theatre better preserved than almost any other in the Mediterranean, still used for an opera and ballet festival in late summer. Termessos stands above 1,000 metres in Güllük Dağı National Park, 30 kilometres northwest — the mountain city Alexander besieged but never took. The Antalya Museum holds the statues excavated at Perge.

The ruins are open ground, so in July and August go at opening time or late in the day. Tours usually combine Perge, Aspendos and Side, 75 kilometres east, into about eight hours; ask whether entry fees are included, since site entry is charged separately. Termessos means a steep twenty-minute climb to the theatre, better skipped in rain. Kaleiçi on foot takes two or three hours on steep cobbles. In working mosques, cover shoulders and knees, remove shoes, and wait out prayer times.