It is located near Avsar village, 15 kmto the east of Millets, at the shore of the Bafa Lake. Strabon stated that Myus was founded by Kydrelos, son of Kodros, the king of Athena. According to Strabon, it is one of the cities included in the Panionion Union. Herodotus stated that Persian fleet anchored to Myus off-shores in 499 BC. However, Herodotus declared that Myus took part in the Lade Sea War in 494 BC. with only three ships. Dionysus tempest of which name is being mentioned in ancient resources and which is made of white marble has been found during the digs. Today, we see in the city, some parts of Dionysus tempest, and rampart walls of the Archaic Period and the ruins of Byzantine castle.

The first natives of the Ancient Phocaea or Phokaia settlement in the place of today’s Old Foca are known as the immigrants who came from the Phokis environs in Greece. Phokaia which had two ports had grown in a short time and became one of the most important port cities of the ancient times. The city lost strength during the Persian rule in West Anatolia and could only join the lonian Revolt in 500-494 B.C. with three ships. Afterwards the city maintained it’s free status, however the damage that the Persians caused was so great that Phokaia never regained its original magnificence.

Generally speaking, ancient Pisidia was a mountainous district bounded to the west and north by Phrygia, to the east by Lycaonia, and to the south by Lycia and Pamphylia. These lands more or less correspond to the Turkey’s Lakes Region plus the mountains to the north of Antalya. Surveys and excavations of this region reveal that it has been continuously occupied since prehistoric times. According to present evidence, the first settlements date to the Upper Palaeolithic. It is possible to follow the development of cultures from hoyuks, or man made settlement mounds, which are found mainly on plains or natural eminences, and this is especially the case with Hacılar Hoyuk, which lays 25 kilometres south-west of Burdur.

Hacılar is one of the most important sites not only for this region but for all Anatolian prehistory. British excavations here from 1957 to 1960 illuminated one of the unknown epochs of Anatolia’s past; the culture discovered here proved to be superior to its contemporaries and to have had its own creative character. Nine occupation levels have been identified at Hacılar, and according to carbon 14 tests, these all fit into the period between 5600 and 4750 BC .In addition, below this, remains belonging to an A-ceramic Neolithic culture dating to 7000 BC were uncovered. Most distinctive of the material remains from Hacılar, is a series of baked clay female figurines.

Sitting in various postures, lying or holding a child, these figurines are full breasted and have clearly delineated sexual organs. They can be identified with a Mother Goddess symbolizing the fecundity and abundance of the Anatolian woman. A survey in the Hacılar region has uncovered widespread settlement of 30 mounds, testifying to this region’s dense settlement in the late 3rd millennium BC as well. As for the historical period, there is no mention of Pisidia until about the middle of Persian rule in the region, but there was a partial increase in settlement during Hellenistic times. In contrast to the pattern seen in the prehistoric era, during this period the local inhabitants moved up into the mountains where they lived in cities.

Possessing a warlike spirit, the people of Pisidia were constantly engaged in internecine intrigues. Their love of freedom, however, prevented the mountain people of Pisidia from ever uniting to with a single state. Undoubtedly the cantonal disposition of the lands also contributed to this factionalism. The people of Pisidia took advantage of both the area’s mountainous terrain and the fact that no major trade routes through their lands; they were thus able to preserve their independence, not coming under the direct control of any other state until the second half of the first millennium B.C.

Alexander the Great, after taking the cities of Pamphylia, had intended to go on to Phrygia through the Pisidian mountains. At the same time this was meant to be a show of force for the Pisidians, but Alexander’s plan backfired, because the people of Termessos, who controlled the Yenice pass leading to Phrygia, blocked the pass. After losing a few days, Alexander broke through the blockage and surrounded Termessos, but realizing that capturing the city would cost him too much time, he abandoned the siege. Proceeding due north, Alexander passed onto another big Pisidian city, Sagalassos.

The historian Arrianos, in giving details of the engagement between Alexander’s army and that of Sagalassos, has this to say; “Sagalassos was an important city. Like the other cities, it was inhabited by the Pisidians. These were reckoned to be the bravest of a very warlike people”. After taking Sagalassos. Alexander also conquered the other Pisidian cities lying along his route. Despite the fact that Alexander was hailed in Lycia and Pamphylia as a liberator, we could draw important conclusions from the fact that he was met by fierce resistance from Pisidian cities like Termessos and Sagalassos.

Their unyielding stance suggests that the Pisidians, even though Alexander had just taken control of the whole of western Anatolia, were freedom loving people, and such noble warriors that they felt themselves strong enough to take him on. After defeating Antiochos III, Rome gave its allies, Pergamum and Rhodes, those lands they had gained during the war, since it did not want any land in Asia Minor. According to their agreement, western Pisidia went to Pergamum. Pisidia found freedom in 133 BC when it remained outside the province of Asia founded by the king of Pergamum. We know nothing of events in northern Pisidia at this time.

The people of southern Pisidia took to piracy. Roman interference remained superficial and the cities enjoyed a perceptible economic boom. For these reasons, in the middle of the first century BC, a significant proportion of the settlements of Pisidia gained city-state or polis status and began minting their own coins. With the Pax Romana, settlement once again returned to the plains of Pisidia, and even the mountain hideouts of robber barons became centres of art and culture. Social, cultural, and commercial life revived. At this time many colonies were started, both as observation points and as a means of speeding the Romanization of the population.

Colonies were founded in cities like Cremna, Comama, Antiocheia, Olbasa, and Parlais; built like forts, they also functioned as centres for the diffusion of the Roman culture and the Latin language. Supported by various emperors, there was a building boom in this area lasting the whole of the second century AD. New roads linked the cities of the region. Even when the empire was in decline, there was a lot of building, especially in Termessos, but also in other Pisidian cities. Beginning in the middle of the third century, the brigands gained power in eastern Pisidia and, seizing Cremna, used it as a base. Emperor Probus (reigned 276-282 AD) came to Asia Minor and personally cleaned up the region, ridding it of the brigands.

The first years of the fourth century AD marked the beginning of the decline of Pisidian cities. During this period an interesting situation developed in the colonies. In spite of the fact that many Roman citizens lived there, Greek was far more prevalent than Latin, which remained in use as a written language only. So that the people could understand them, proclamations were written in the two official languages of the day, Greek and Latin.

Strabo, in naming the thirteen Pisidian cities quotes Artemidoros, a man who is know to have lived in the first century BC. However, according to recent reckoning, the names of 51 the Hellenistic and Roman period sites are now known, in addition to the five colonies already mentioned above. Of these, some are as yet are not located. Of all these cities, we will content ourselves with describing three lying within the boundaries of the present day Antalya province Termessos, Ariassos and Selge.

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.