Antalya Holidays Turkey
Antalya, Turkey
Nature, history and rich cultural background makes Antalya one of the best holiday destination in Turkey for the tourists. You can swim in the warm mediterrrian sea Starting from april till and of the October. Historical places,antique cities, water sports, and national parks and lots of other tourist attractions can be found in this wonderful Turkish resort
Antalya name came from King II. Attalos.
Antalya , Turkey
In the 11th Century BC, Attalus, King of Pergamon ordered his soldiers to look for the most beautiful place on earth. After a long journey they arrived at a place and said “this must be Paradise on Earth”. Attalus chose to build a city on this spot and named it Attaleia after himself.
Today’s Antalya is one of Turkey’s most important cities and the jewel in the crown of the stunning Mediterranean coast, known as the ‘Turkish Riviera’. The clear, warm waters of the Mediterranean shimmer to the fore with the majestic peaks of the Taurus Mountains rising high above the city. At the heart of the city is the old town of ‘Kaleiçi’ set within the original city walls, with its narrow winding roads, traditional old houses and charming harbour. Attaleia became one of the Roman Empire’s most important cities, and was visited by the Emperor Hadrian in 130 AD.
The triumphal arch which was built in his honour is still standing today. Also famous amongst Antalya’s sights is the unusual ‘Yivli’ (fluted) minaret which has become a symbol of the city. Culture vultures will find plenty to see and do in the surrounding area with the magnificent ancient cities of Side, Perge and Aspendos within easy reach. As well as being a tourist resort, Antalya is also a living, breathing city, which means that there are plenty of shops and some excellent restaurants in the area around the harbour – of course, you do pay a little extra for the view, but it is more than worth it.
Antalya's History
History
See History of Antalya Province for details of this area in antiquity
It is uncertain when the site of the current city was first inhabited. Attalos II, king of Pergamon, was believed to have founded the city around 150 BC, naming it Attalia and selecting it as a naval base for his powerful fleet. However, excavations in 2008 in the Doğu Garajı district of Antalya have uncovered remains dating to the 3rd century BC, suggesting that the city was founded earlier than previously supposed. Antalya became part of the Roman Republic in 133 BC when King Attalos III of Pergamum willed his kingdom to Rome at his death. The city grew and prospered during the Ancient Roman period.
Statue of Attalos II in the city center.
Christianity started to spread in the region after 2nd century. Antalya was visited by Paul of Tarsus, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles: "From Perga, Paul and Barnabas went down to Attalia and sailed from there to Antioch after preaching in Pisidia and Pamphylia" (Acts 14:25-26).
Antalya was a major city in the Byzantine Empire. It was the capital of the Byzantine Theme of Carabisiani (Θέμα Kαραβησιάνων, Thema Karavēsianōn), which occupied the southern coasts of Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands. At the time of the accession of John II Comnenus (1118) it was an isolated outpost against the Turks, accessible only by sea.[2] The following year, with the aid of his commander-in-chief John Axuch, John II drove the Turks from the land routes to Antalya and reconnected the city with the rest of the empire.
The city, along with the surrounding region, was conquered by the Seljuk Turks in the early 13th century. Antalya was the capital of the Turkish beylik of Teke (1321-1423) until its conquest by the Ottomans. The Arabic traveler Ibn Battuta who came to the city in between 1335-1340 noted:
From Alanya I went to Antaliya [Adalia], a most beautiful city. It covers an immense area, and though of vast bulk is one of the most attractive towns to be seen anywhere, besides being exceedingly populous and well laid out. Each section of the inhabitants lives in a separate quarter. The Christian merchants live in a quarter of the town known as the Mina [the Port], and are surrounded by a wall, the gates of which are shut upon them from without at night and during the Friday service. The Greeks, who were its former inhabitants, live by themselves in another quarter, the Jews in another, and the king and his court and Mamluks in another, each of these quarters being walled off likewise. The rest of the Muslims live in the main city. Round the whole town and all the quarters mentioned there is another great wall. The town contains orchards and produces fine fruits, including an admirable kind of apricot, called by them Qamar ad-Din, which has a sweet almond in its kernel. This fruit is dried and exported to Egypt, where it is regarded as a great luxury.[3]
In the second half of the 17th century Evliya Çelebi wrote of a city of narrow streets containing 3,000 houses in twenty Turkish and four Greek neighborhoods. The town had grown beyond the city walls and the port was reported to hold up to 200 boats.
In the 19th century, in common with most of Anatolia, its sovereign was a "dere bey" (land lord or landowner). The family of Tekke Oglu, domiciled near Perge, though reduced to submission in 1812 by Mahmud II, continued to be a rival power to the Ottoman governor until within the present generation, surviving by many years the fall of the other great beys of Anatolia. The records of the Levant (Turkey) Company, which maintained an agency in Antalya until 1825, documented the local dere beys.
In the 20th century the population of Antalya increased as Turks from the Caucasus and the Balkans moved into Anatolia. By 1911 it was a city of about 25,000 people, including many Christians and Jews, still living in separate quarters around the walled mina or port. The port was served by coast steamers of local companies. Antalya (then Adalia) was picturesque, but ill-built and backward. The chief attraction for visitors was the city wall, and outside a promenade -a portion of which survives to the present. The government offices and the houses of the higher classes were all outside of the walls.[4]
Winding Ottoman era streets of Kaleiçi.
The city was briefly occupied by the Italians from the end of the First World War until the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
