Antalya

Antalya

Antalya is a city on the Mediterranean coast of southwestern Turkey. It was the world's third most visited city by number of international arrivals in 2011, displacing New York. It is Turkey's biggest international sea resort.

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 Attaliaand selecting it as a naval base for his powerful fleet. However, excavations in 2008 in the Doğu Garajı district 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 Pergamon willed his kingdom to Rome at his death. The city grew and prospered during the Ancient Roman period.

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".

Antalya was a major city in the Byzantine Empire. It was the capital of the Byzantine Theme of Carabisiani, which occupied the southern coasts of Anatolia and the Aegean Islands. At the time of the accession of John II Comnenus in 1118 it was an isolated outpost surrounded by Turkish beyliks, accessible only by sea.

The city and the surrounding region were 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 visited the city in 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.

In the second half of the 17th century Evliya Çelebi wrote of a city of narrow streets containing 3,000 houses in 20 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 Oğlu, domiciled near Perge had been reduced to submission in 1812 by Mahmud II, but 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 economy was centered on its port that served the inland areas, particularly Konya. Antalya (then Adalia) was picturesque rather than modern. The chief attraction for visitors was the city wall, and outside a promenade, a portion of which survives. The government offices and the houses of the higher classes were outside the walls.

The city was occupied by the Italians from the end of the First World War until the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923. Large-scale development beginning in the 1970s transformed Antalya from a pastoral town into one of Turkey's largest metropolitan areas. Much of this has been due to tourism, which expanded in the 21st century.

Kaleiçi, with its narrow cobbled streets of historic Ottoman era houses, is the old centre of Antalya. With its hotels, bars, clubs, restaurants, and shopping, it has been restored to retain much of its historical character; its restoration has won the Golden Apple Tourism Prize. Cumhuriyet Square, the main square of the city, is the location for temporary open air exhibitions and performances. The city also features sites with traces of Lycian, Pamphylian, and Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman architecture and cultures. International luxury hotels stand along the coast above the Konyaalti and Lara beaches.

                                                        Antalya’s Top 5:

   
1. Yivli Minare Camii (Fluted Minaret Mosque), is a historical mosque in Antalya. It is part of a külliye (complex of structures) which includes the Gıyaseddin Keyhüsrev Medrese, Seljuk and Dervish lodge, and the vaults of Zincirkıran and Nigar Hatun. The mosque is located in Kaleiçi (the old town centre) along Cumhuriyet Caddesi, next to Kalekapısı Meydanı. The mosque's fluted minaret called the Yivli Minare, which is decorated with dark blue tiles, is a landmark and symbol of the city. The mosque was first built in 1230 and fully reconstructed for the second time in 1373. The minaret is 38 metres (125 ft) high, built on a square stone base, with eight fluted sections and has 90 steps to the top.
2. Konyaaltı Beach (Konyaaltı Plaji) is one of the two main beaches of Antalya, the other being Lara Beach. The beach is located on the western side of the city and stretches for 7 km from the cliffs to the Beydağları mountains. It is bound inwards by the beach park and numerous bars, cafes, nightclubs and hotels, including the Rixos Downtown Hotel (formerly the Sheraton Voyager Hotel). The 'Aqualand' waterpark along Dumlupınar Bulvarı is the other border.
3. The Antalya Museum or Antalya Archeological Museum is one of Turkey's largest museums, located in Konyaaltı. It includes 13 exhibition halls and an open air gallery. It covers an area of 7,000 m2 (75,000 sq ft) and has 5000 works of art are exhibited. In addition a further 25,000–30,000 artifacts which cannot be displayed are in storage. As a museum exhibiting examples of works, which illuminate the history of the Mediterranean and Pamphylia regions in Anatolia, Antalya Museum is one of the most important of Turkey's museums. The Museum won the “European Council Special Prize” in 1988.
4. Düden Waterfalls are a group of waterfalls, formed by the Düden River (one of the major rivers in southern Anatolia), located 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north-east of Antalya. They end where the waters of the Lower Düden Falls drop off a rocky cliff directly into the Mediterranean Sea.
5. The Hadrian's Gate, or Hadrianus Gate is a triumphal arch which was built in the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian, who visited Antalya in the year 130. It has three arched gates. According to the legend, Sultan Belkis, the Queen of Sheba, is said to have passed under those gates and enjoyed a happy day in the palace in Aspendos on her way to visit King Solomon. Formerly the city walls enclosed the outside of the gate and it was not used for many years. This may be the reason why it has not been harmed, and it was only revealed when the walls collapsed. It is considered as Pamphylia's most beautiful Gate. The upper part has three apertures in the shape of a cupola, and except for the pillars is built entirely of white marble. The ornamentation is very striking. The original Gate was two storeys but little is known of the top storey. On either side of the Gate are towers, which are known not to have been built at the same time. The southern one is known as the Julia Sancta tower and is a work of the Hadrian era. It was constructed of plain stone blocks. While the base of the northern tower belongs to antiquity, the upper part is left over from the Seljuk period.