About 35 km. along the Antalya – Alanya highway, you turn north and continue 8 km. until Sillyon is reached. It was built on an ellipse shaped table-like plateau rising above the flat plain. Due to its location the surrounding areas can easily be seen, and in fact the view stretches as far as the Mediterranean. It was settled in the 4th century B.C. and it lived not only through the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods, but was also used by the Seljuks who also added buildings and increased its wealth. Some of its interesting sights are the stadium, gymnasium, turrets, Seljuk mosque, the theater whose proscenium is buried under rocks, and the sports arena Sillyon, This Pamphylian town, located between Perge and Aspendos, is situated on top of a flat-topped hill with almost vertical flanks.

With its unusual physical formation, the hill is easily recognizable even from a distance. Strabo mentions in his writings that the city, some 40 stad or 7.2 km, inland, was visible from Perge. It is generally accepted that Sillyon, like other cities in Pamphylia, was founded after the Trojan War by the heroes Mopsos and Calchas. A statue base found in Sillyon bears Mopsos’ name. Sillyon began to mint coinage in its own name in the third century B.C. On these coins the name of the city was written as Sylviys, which must have been changed to Sillyon in the Roman era. The name Sillyon is almost never mentioned in history except, for its appearance in Arrianos’ notes on the campaigns of Alexander the Great.

These notes indicate that the reaction of Sillyon’s residents to Alexander was hostile, in contrast to that of Perge, and that they defended themselves from a strong position, relying on mercenaries as well as soldiers. In any case it appears that Sillyon had been a military base since Persian times; the remains of buildings and fortifications from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Seljuk epochs reveal that the city preserved its military character for a long time. Climbing a simple path from Yanköy toward the hill, the first thing one encounters is the lower gate. Consisting of a horseshoe-shaped court with two rectangular towers. It is similar to Perge’s Hellenistic gate in its plan and masonry. On this basis it has been dated to the third century B.C.

Because Sillyon is situated on a steep-sided hill, there was no need to surround the city with walls. It was only in the west and southwest sections where the incline is at its slightest, that walls, towers, and ramparts were erected. These exhibit painstaking stonework and considerable technical expertise. The city’s oldest ruins lie north-east of the main entrance gate. The first structure one encounters here is a two storey, Sillyon high walled building from the Byzantine era; although it is in good condition, its function has not yet been ascertained. At the end of its lies one of Sillyon’s most important structures, a 7×55 metre palaestra of Hellenistic date. On its west wall are ten windows of differing dimensions. A little further on is a small Hellenistic building with an elegant door and carefully executed masonry.

The building’s fame is derived from an inscription written on the door in the local Pamphylian dialect. The inscription, thirty lines in length, is the longest and most important document in this dealect known today. It is a pity that a portion of the inscription was lost when a hole was made in the door at a later date. While the dialect, written in Greek characters, was used in a large part of Pamphylian until the first century A.D., it was gradually forgotten after that date and was replaced by Greek. At the southern edge of the plateau one encounters a sad scene. The Sillyon theatre and the odeon beside it, described as being in an excellent state of preservation in the 1884 Pamphylian travel notes of the Austrian researcher Lanckoronski, disappeared down the hill in a landslide in 1969; only eleven rows of seats from the cavea were left in place.

Immediately after the theatre, rock cut stairs with balustrades along the sides lead to Hellenistic houses of square or rectangular plan constructed in the meticulous stonework typical of that period. Going east, one sees a small Hellenistic temple. Rising above a podium measuring 7.30×11.00 metres, the temple’s cella wall and stylobate are still standing. According to existing architectural remains, the temple was of the Doric prostyle type. From the beginning of the thirteenth century the Seljuks settled in Sillyon in small groups, just as they did in certain other cities. In accordance with their custom they built a small, thin-walled, crenelated citadel on the acropolis. The most interesting building that has survived from the Seljuk period is a square, domed mosque in the north-west part of the acropolis.

Other than a few Byzantine and Seljuk buildings there are no important remains at the eastern end of the acropolis. On returning to the village from the upper gate, one passes a necropolis area consisting of simple graves, before arriving at a well preserved tower. Square in plan, the tower has two floors, with a door opening into the lower one. Doors on the upper level placed there for defensive purposes open onto the ramparts. The stadium is on a terrace south-west of the tower. It is in very poor condition; all that remains are the tiers of seats mounted on vaults running along its western length. There could not have been enough springs in the area to ensure an adequate water supply, since it is clear that importance was given to the construction of covered and open cisterns from the Hellenistic period onward.