Seleukia or Lyrbe - always worth a trip

Seleukia or Lyrbe - always worth a trip

For Seleukia, you drive from Manavgat towards the falls, a few kilometers after the great waterfall the signposted turnoff leads to Seleukia.

alanya-camper-021.jpg

In the village Bucakşeyhler always keep to the right and follow the signs. At the mosque turn right again. After leaving the village, it is about 3 km across the asphalted road through the forest. From the parking lot it is still a few minutes walk uphill.

alanya-camper-022.jpg 

Reaching the car park with a normal car requires a very prudent driving style, as the road section was heavily washed out at the top.

alanya-camper-023.jpg

Although Seleukia is known for several geographic works of antiquity, the history of the city is largely in the dark.

alanya-camper-024.jpg

It´s name points to a Seleucid foundation, possibly directly by Seleukos I. Nikator. It was founded around 300 BC.

alanya-camper-025.jpg 

The ancient city, with one of the best-preserved marketplaces known as agora, is relatively difficult to access for people in the midst of the dense pine forest and has therefore been spared from the recent settlements.

alanya-camper-030.jpg

The site was explored in the early 1970s by Istanbul archaeologists, who secured the most valuable artifacts of the city, an orpheus mosaic and a bronze statue of Apollo, which can now be viewed in the Museum of Antalya.

alanya-camper-031.jpg 

The foundations of a Byzantine church - in the immediate vicinity of the space of the Orpheus mosaic on the north side of the market square, surrounded by four ionic columns - show that the place was still inhabited in the Middle Ages or at least was partly inhabited.

alanya-camper-032.jpg

Due to its strategically favorable plateau position on a hillside slope to the west, the city was only protected in the south by a city wall which is still preserved up to a height of 9 meters.

alanya-camper-033.jpg 

The imperial Agora rests, in order to gain a flat terrain, in the west on huge substructions with barrel vaults, which were used as magazines.

alanya-camper-035.jpg

In the west rise eight-storey "shop buildings", as they are known in their preservation only from Pompeii or Herculaneum.

alanya-camper-037.jpg

To the south is a small Odeion.

alanya-camper-036.jpg

A few paces north of the market square is a small podium area with a formerly four-column Pronaos well preserved.

alanya-camper-038.jpg

Further north-westerly, the large necropolises, which points to the importance and size of the town, can be seen.

alanya-camper-040.jpg 

At all, the former development is largely still in the dark, as only a few excavations have taken place.

alanya-camper-042.jpg

Further to the west is the thermal baths, whose dome ceilings and plasterings of the walls speak for the original wealth of the city.

alanya-camper-043.jpg

We have been in the ruins town several times, but there is always something new to discover.

Please read as well:

Manavgat Waterfall - in spring time with plenty of water

Taurus Excursion - visit of the Altinbesik Cave

 

 

History

Life | Outdoors

Culture